admin
Thandeka Moyo, Health Reporter
THE Government has warned against sprouting “house pharmacies” in the country where unregistered persons sell drugs illegally especially antibiotics, whose continued abuse can lead to deadly antimicrobial resistance.
Speaking in Bulawayo yesterday, director of epidemiology and disease control in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Portia Manangazira, said some Zimbabweans were abusing antibiotics.
This was during a lecture to mark World Antibiotic Awareness Week which runs from November 12 to 18.
The week aims to increase global awareness on antibiotic resistance and to encourage best practices among the general public. “We have seen a situation where people who are not licensed to prescribe are prescribing drugs or selling drugs even in unregistered premises including homes. This leads to promotion of fake drugs as these have very little of the active medicine required to suppress infections,” said Dr Manangazira.
“We have seen a lot of mushrooming of people who are selling medicine and they are not qualified because medicine in the hands of a fool becomes poison. This results in challenges as infections may become resistant to the few available antibiotics to stop working in treating infections,” she said.
Dr Manangazira said members of the public should take note that any pharmacy has four licences before purchasing medication from them.
The licences, she said, should be prominently displayed in all premises that sell medicines.
These include a licence from the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe, one from the Health Professions Authority, one from the local authority and lastly a practising certificate for the pharmacist.
“We are particularly worried as public health authorities because we have a massive threat of a situation where somebody will have an illness which is genuinely caused by bacteria, fungus, virus or protozoa but medication then fails,” she added.
She said people increase risk to resistance by taking antibiotics when they are not feeling sick.
“Some people just believe it is good to take antibiotics once in a while to improve their health but it is another way of starting that resistance. Some people believe that if they are not well and they see a doctor or nurse they must never leave without antibiotics or an injection and yet on the other hand when they get the course they never finish it they take one or two and forget about it,” said Dr Manangazira.
She added that people should desist from sharing antibiotics.
“If these viruses or bacteria are exposed to an inadequate dose of a medicine or duration they adapt and mutate. People should get medicines from licensed personnel and they must stop sharing antibiotics because the dose prescribed for a person’s illness may not be appropriate for you.” — @thamamoe
Online Reporter