Union government moots stringent rules

To put a check on antibiotic resistance, the Union Health Ministry is chalking out plans to audit prescriptions as one of the methods to put a check on antibiotic resistance.

HYDERABAD: To put a check on antibiotic resistance, the Union Health Ministry is chalking out plans to audit prescriptions as one of the methods to put a check on antibiotic resistance, but sources in Telangana Drug Control Administration (TDA) who were involved in checks on individual pharmacies and those attached to hospitals in the state said that the implemention may take time.

Citing their experience of enforcing rules on pharmacies and hospitals, sources said that pharmacies do not maintain all sales bills and given the situation, rule to audit all prescriptions will take time. However, they said that if the ministry is serious about implementing it, they will have to put in all efforts. Antibiotics are listed under Schedule-H and H1, which are supposed to be sold only against prescription.  World Health Organisation (WHO) stated n its website stated that new resistance mechanisms are emerging and spreading globally, threatening ability to treat common infectious diseases.

“A growing list of infections such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, blood poisoning and gonorrhoea- are becoming harder, and sometimes impossible, to treat as antibiotics become less effective. Where antibiotics can be bought for human or animal use without a prescription, the emergence and spread of resistance is made worse,” it added.

The plan of the Union Health Ministry is to launch a multi pronged strategy by involving nine departments to restrain misuse of antibiotics (In Humans and animals). The initiative is expected to be rolled out on from Feb 22.

DCA officials said that they had held awareness programmes for chemists and druggists Association and circulars were issued instructing that antibiotics should not be sold without prescriptions, they have reservations on implementation of the Ministry’s upcoming plan to audit prescriptions.

Sources who were part of the checks on pharmacies said: “They do not maintain all sales bills. In this situation, auditing the prescriptions will be a task. If the mechanism has to be implemented, it will take a lot of time”. Besides the challenging task, sources said that they do not have enough man power to enforce the impending step.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com