KOCHI: For the first time in the state, the Health department in Ernakulam district has prepared a list of antibiotics according to the World Health Organisation’s AWaRe classification to help doctors prescribe access category antibiotics. The initiative aims to ensure that 95 per cent of antibiotics prescribed for OP patients are from the access category. The district medical office has distributed the IEC (Information, Education and Communication) to the doctors in 47 PHCs, CHCs and FHCs in the district.The list of antibiotics classified into the Access, Watch and Reserve categories is displayed in various colours - green for Access, yellow for the Watch category and red for the Reserve category.
The initiative can help prevent the misuse of the categories - watch and reserve. Before writing a prescription for a patient, physicians can refer to this list,” said Dr P S Sivaprasad, District Programme Manager of the National Health Mission in Ernakulam district and the nodal officer of the antimicrobial resistance programme, hub and spoke model.
The tabletop IEC is prepared by N S Subhash, pharmacist at the Eroor Family health centre, based on the directions given by Dr Sakeena, district medical officer; Dr Sivaprasad, Dr Aravind, state anti microbial working committee chairman; and the district nodal officer Dr Anu Philip.
Dr Sakeena said the programme will make the hospitals in the district antibiotic-smart. “We have prepared a tabletop AwaRe classification IEC that can be placed on the table of the medical officer to identify the antibiotics in different categories,” she said.
“95 per cent of antibiotics prescribed for OP patients at the primary, community and family health centres should be in the Access category,” added Dr Sivaprasad.