Concern grows as antibiotic abuses go rampant

Pharmacologists of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Saturday expressed grave concern over the abuses of antibiotics and their subsequent negative impacts on both human and animal health in the country, reports BSS. "The days are not very far when the entire nation would be under severe threats of antibiotics resistance due to abuses of the drug that kills germ bacteria," associate professor Dr Mohammad Sayedur Rahman told journalists at media orientation programme at the university. The BSMMU in association with the World Health Oraganization (WHO) organized the programme in line with the World Health Day, the theme of which for this year is 'Antimicrobial Resistance: No Action Today, No Cure Tomorrow'. WHO's Public Information Consultant SM Mahfuzur Rahman said the campaign against antibiotics resistance would continue beyond World Health Day for round the year. Sayedur Rahman said the government should immediately formulate a policy for the uses of antibiotics, much of which have been developed between 1940 and 1970 to treat bacterial and fungal infections. Erwin Cooreman, medical officer WHO, said Bangladesh has neither a proper guideline nor the doctors follow any antibiotics protocol during prescription. As a result, he said, first generation antibiotics have almost become ineffective to cure patients, while second generations are facing non-responsiveness.