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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Use antibiotics rationally: WHO

Use antibiotics rationally: WHO

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published Published on Apr 7, 2011   modified Modified on Apr 7, 2011

Anti-microbial resistance, theme of this year's World Health Day

Drug resistance renders medicines ineffective

Celebrating World Health Day 2011, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called for intensification of the global commitment to safeguard antibiotics for future generations.

With growing resistance by microbes to antibiotics threatening the continued effectiveness of many medicines, WHO has made anti-microbial resistance the theme of this year's World Health Day.

It has urged governments and stakeholders to implement policies and practices to prevent and counter the emergence of highly resistant micro-organisms. Though anti-microbial resistance is not a new problem, it is fast becoming more dangerous. “We depend on antibiotics and other anti-microbial medicines to treat conditions that would otherwise be fatal. Anti-microbial resistance is drug resistance that renders these medicines ineffective,'' noted a release issued by WHO.

“The time for sustained action is now, since we are slowly but surely moving towards a reversion to the dreadful pre-antibiotics era,'' said WHO South-East Asia regional director Dr. Samlee Plianbangchang. “If that happens, death and disease due to untreatable infectious diseases will become the biggest obstacle to poverty alleviation, development, and global efforts to make the world a better and a more healthy place.”

“Anti-microbial resistance is a serious problem that strikes at the core of infectious disease control. The two main factors that drive the rise and spread of resistant organisms – over-use and misuse of antimicrobials -- and the spread of resistant organisms between individuals, communities and countries, has to be curtailed by improving anti-microbial use. Rational use of anti-microbials is essential to stop the selection pressure that drives anti-microbial resistance,'' said WHO representative to India Dr. Nata Menabde.

Asking people to use antibiotics rationally, WHO noted: “Antibiotics saves lives, it should be taken for the full duration that it has been prescribed for, vaccinate children against preventable diseases, follow a healthy lifestyle and reduce the need for antibiotics and throw away old medicines and never self-medicate.''

“In WHO's South-East Asia region inadequate quality, misuse and poor access to drugs continue to be major components of the widespread inappropriate use of antibiotics. Anti-microbial resistance has enormous social and personal costs. Combating anti-microbial resistance is a challenge that cannot be addressed by health administrators alone. Misuse of antibiotics by prescribers and users has behavioural, educational, ethical and economic dimensions which demand concerted and sustained actions by all sectors of society. Weak pharmaceutical regulatory mechanisms in most developing countries also permit the availability of antibiotics of questionable quality and the unauthorised sale of these antibiotics,'' noted the WHO release.

The Hindu, 7 April, 2011, http://www.hindu.com/2011/04/07/stories/2011040763780700.htm


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