LAHORE: Senior health experts recently warned that irrational and unjustified use of antibiotics by physicians and patients without consulting their doctors is limiting options in the fight against deadly bacteria, claiming that over-the-counter sales of antibiotics, over-prescription, and unchecked use of these drugs is leading to Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), a condition in which antibiotics don't work against most germs.
They also criticised the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) for registering hundreds of antibiotics and making them freely available without a prescription, claiming that hundreds of drug companies have hundreds of antibiotic brands and that their overuse has become a serious public health concern in Pakistan.
Prof. Dr Jamal Raza, a senior paediatrician, while speaking at the sidelines of the 17th Asia Pacific Congress of Pediatrics, said, "Easy availability of antibiotics is one of the most serious issues in Pakistan where people at pharmacies are selling these drugs like candies. Patients take these drugs for a day and two, and when the symptoms of the disease are gone, they stop taking these antibiotics, making bacteria resistant to these drugs."
Excessive and irrational use of antibiotics, according to Dr Asad Ali of Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), is not only causing Antimicrobial Resistance in humans, but it is also dangerous practice in children, where these drugs kill their healthy or beneficial bacteria, causing serious health issues for the children.
Dr Asad Ali said, "There are ten times more bacteria in the human body than its own cells, and antibiotics are like a bomb, which kills all types of bacteria present in the human body. Irrational use of antibiotics in children deprives them of healthy flora, which results in serious health consequences for them."
Hundreds of professionals from Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, Africa, the United States, Australia, and Canada, as well as numerous towns across the country, attended the international moot and presented research papers on various aspects of infant, child, and adolescent health.
