Practise good hygiene, senior pharmacist urged

DO not demand antibiotics, instead practise good hygiene, wear masks and practise safe sex.

This was the message from Reenal Chand, a Fiji Pharmaceutical Society senior pharmacist, to participants at the multisectoral panel discussion addressing a public health threat due to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Suva last Tuesday.

“We are all consumers of medication, we’re all consumers of antibiotics, it is in our hands, to use them properly in the correct manner,” Dr Chand said.

He said this when asked if the public needed to play a role in preventing and mitigating AMR at the multi-sectoral panel discussion.

Mr Chand said most of the people were not aware of the issue as it was a “very technical subject”.

“There’s not enough information. But we are fighting to change that. It’s easy to think that health issues are somebody else’s problem. You think that it’s the doctor’s responsibility to ensure that AMR does not happen.”

In the discussion, he highlighted the need for consumers to do their part to ensure that AMR did not run rampant in the country.

“The thing that consumers can do is not demand antibiotics.

“Prevention, such as hand hygiene, wearing of masks and practising safe sex, goes a long way in preventing AMR in the first place. The old adage prevention is better than cure is applicable in more than anyplace else.”

Dr Chand said people had expectations to always receive medication when they went for a check-up and a change in mindset was needed.

“From what I’ve seen working in community pharmacy, there’s always that expectation that if you are sick, and you go to the doctor, you’ll be prescribed antibiotic.

“But your doctor, being the health expert in that case, having run the appropriate diagnosis, and hopefully the appropriate tests, determines whether you need that antibiotic, the doctor has the responsibility not to prescribe it unnecessarily.”