Bhubaneswar: In a bid to tackle the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), Odisha Drugs Controller Ashok Kumar Patra has issued directives to all drug inspectors to ensure that medicine shops do not sell antibiotics without prescriptions.
Patra said that the drug inspectors have been told to take stern action against violators. He added that medicine shops will maintain registers while selling such items.
Notably, earlier the Union Health Ministry in India urged doctors to mandatorily mention indications and reasons for prescribing antibiotics.
Odisha Health Director, Bijay Kumar Mohapatra, welcomed the move, attributing the rise in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) globally to the irrational use of antibiotics. He stressed that proper quantities of antibiotics should be prescribed according to the specific requirements of each case.
Mohapatra asserted, “Rational use of antibiotics will lessen AMR. It is a welcome step. Medicine shops should not sell antibiotics without doctors’ prescriptions.”
AMR is one of the top global public health threats facing humanity, the director general of health services said in the letter addressed to all doctors of medical colleges and all medical associations. It happens when drugs designed to kill infectious bacteria and fungi are rendered ineffective because the microbes have evolved and developed an ability to defeat these drugs.
PNN