Bhubaneswar: Health & Family Welfare (H&FW) Department of the Odisha government has instructed all doctors to mandatorily mention exact indication/reason/justification while prescribing anti-microbials for interest of the public.
Commissioner-cum-Secretary H&FW Department Shalini Pandit on Wednesday issued a letter to all Directors of Health & FW Department, Superintendents of Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals, Superintendents of private Medical Colleges & Hospitals, and CDM & PHOs in this regard.
In the letter, Pandit referred to the Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India’s letter issued on January 1, this year regarding mandatory practice to write indication while prescribing anti-microbials.
Quoting reports, the H&FW Secretary has stated that Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) puts many of the gains of moderm Medicine at risk and threatens the effective prevention and treatment of infections caused by resistant microbes, resulting prolonged illness and greater risk of death.
Treatment failures also lead to longer periods of infectivity and prohibitive high cost of the second-line drugs may result in failure to treat these disease in many individuals. Misuse and overuse of anti-microbials is one of the main drivers in the emergence of drug-resistant pathogens. With few new antibiotics in the Research & Development pipeline. prudent antibiotic use is the only option to delay the development of resistance, the Secretary added in the letter.
The Secretary has urged doctors at Medical Colleges and peripheral Health Institutions set example of judicious use of anti-microbials for the next generation of doctors who will face this crisis in a much more severe form, while reminding pharmacists to implement the schedule-II and III of the Drugs and Cosmetic Rules and sell antibiotics only on valid prescriptions.
It is important that all doctors have to mention the exact indication on their prescriptions while prescribing anti-microbials, the letter clarified.
“You are, therefore, requested to circulate the above letter of DGHS, Gol to all doctors working in the Medical Colleges (both Govt.& private) and peripheral Health Institutions with an instruction to strictly follow the above guidelines of Government of India and to mandatorily mention exact indication / reason / justification while prescribing anti-microbials for interest of the public,” the letter concluded.
