Filipinos, unlike the Westerners, in times of minor illness or sickness, tend to medicated themselves independently primarily to cut back on hospital/ doctors' fees. Self- prescribed paracetamol during a fever due to weather changes would be tolerable, but say, to take amoxicillin when a toothache sprouts or when you pricked your foot with a rusty nail would be medically disturbing.
The danger may not be transparently visible to the public, but nurses and other members of the health care team should be able to dig deeper and look through the impending risks. One drawback of antibiotic self-medication is drug resistance.
Antibiotic resistance is a global concern. It is an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all sectors of society. Antibiotic resistance is resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial drug that was originally effective for treatment of infections caused by it. Without effective anti-infective treatment, many standard medical treatments will fail or turn into very high risk procedures. Patients with infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria are generally at increased risk of worse clinical outcomes and death, and consume more health care resources than patients infected with the same bacteria that are not resistant, the WHO said.
To help address this impending threat, the Director of Food and Drug administration, Dr. Kenneth Hartigan-Go, reiterated in 2013 that "The dispensing of antibiotics and other ethical drugs is the responsibility of a registered pharmacist under the employ of the drugstore. The selling or dispensing of antibiotics or other ethical drugs without the required prescription issued by a licensed physician is strictly prohibited".
Go warned that self-medication, which involves buying an antibiotic without a doctor’s prescription, and failing to complete the prescribed course of medication “allow the bacteria to generate a stronger ‘self’ that can resist or fight off the drug’s effect. Other causes of resistance are substandard medicines, irrational prescriptions and poor infection prevention and control.”
The FDA has advised patients to complete their prescribed course of treatment or take the complete dose of medicines to prevent Antibiotic resistance.
In addition, let us always remember that our health teachings as nurses play a key role in letting the patients be empowered and informed on how to prevent complications brought about by inappropriate drug intake and abuse.
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