Paediatrician calls for legislation to control sales, misuse of antibiotics

A Paediatrician Neurologist, Dr Okunola Olusola, on Monday called on the National Assembly to enact a law that would ban all chemist stores from selling antibiotics.
Olusola of the Paediatrics Department, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.
He spoke against the backdrop of regular public use and misuse of antibiotics.
According to him, people die daily from brief illnesses not because they do not have the right drugs but because the drugs have become useless.
He said: “The only way out of this bigger crisis is for government to come up with a legislation to ban all chemist stores from selling antibiotics; it is not their field.
“They are not supposed to sell anything outside pain killers, rub, medicine for cough, cold and catarrh.
“Secondly, government should ensure that no pharmacy dispenses antibiotics without a doctor’s prescription.
“They should also ensure that pharmaceutical companies are monitored and proper sanctions are given whenever they go against moral principles.
“I know coming up with a legislation may take many years to work but that is the only way out; if not, very soon, more people will die of common infections in this country.’’
He added that the greatest danger of antibiotic resistance to human was that “the drugs become useless, no matter how many a patient swallows, the infection will not be cured’’.
The paediatrician expressed regret that a drug like ‘ampicillin’ which used to be very effective was practically useless because of public abuse, saying that “if nothing is done fast, other drugs will follow suit’’.
He said: “So the greatest problem in antibiotic resistance is that we grow a group of micro-organisms that become super micro-organisms, that cannot be killed by any drug and then people start dying of what they should not die of.’’
The specialist also warned people to stop the habit of sharing and using left over antibiotics that were not originally prescribed for them, describing it as ‘dangerous’.
Olusola urged pharmacists to ensure they followed laid-down rules by selling antibiotics to people with doctor’s prescription, as being done in civilised world.
He advised chemists and pharmacists not to take over doctors’ functions when they had no training in diagnosis, treatments and vaccination.