Not all fever, infections need antibiotics - Dr Lee

GEORGE TOWN, June 24 (Bernama) -- The public have to be informed that not all fever or infections need any antibiotics and its not a magic cure for everything, Deputy Health Minister Dr Lee Boon Chye said today.

He said viral infection for example, does not need any antibiotics and the public should not demand from their doctors antibiotic for every ailment.

Dr Lee stressed that health professionals should not wrongfully prescribe antibiotics and drug companies were advised to practice responsible marketing.

"We also hope that pharmaceutical companies take responsibility for ethical and responsible marketing in their effort to promote their drugs. 

"Because all this antibiotic usage which cause resistance strain of the bacteria will actually spill over through the environment and eventually in the human health setting," he told a press conference after opening the Asian regional workshop on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), here.

The three-day workshop which kicked off today aimed to discuss the global developments and initiatives on AMR, and to share information on the extent to which Asian countries have been able to respond to the AMR crisis, including policy responses at the country level.

The workshop was participated by national policy makers from health and agriculture ministries, environment ministries, resource persons and experts from 16 countries.

Dr Lee said the government accorded high priority to tackling the AMR issue by setting up a national AMR committee, chaired by the Ministers of Health and Agriculture and Agro-based, and also comprising senior representatives from both ministries.

"In government hospitals, we also have AMR Stewardship program, where we give guidelines to the doctors on when to use, when not to use especially the antibiotics, also appropriate use of antibiotics. The program also involve how to prevent infections in the hospitals," he said.

AMR is a significant global threat to public health, food security and development today. The UK Review on AMR had projected that at current trends, there would be 10 million deaths globally from AMR in 2050 and nine million will occur in developing countries (4.7 million in Asia, 4.2 million in Africa and 392,000 in Latin America).

-- BERNAMA