Country still needs more pharmacists

Ministry: Our current ratio is less than ideal

Besides serving hospitals and the community for primary and secondary healthcare, there are pharmacists in the industries and the manufacturing g and distribution sectors.

Dr Salmah Bahri

SHAH ALAM: Malaysia still needs several thousand more pharmacists to make up for the shortfall.

“Currently, the country’s ratio of pharmacists to the population is at 1:1,600, which is lower than the ideal rate of 1:1,200,” said Health Ministry (Pharmaceutical Services Division) senior director Dr Salmah Bahri. “The scope of pharmacy is very wide. “Besides serving hospitals and the community for primary and secondary healthcare, there are pharmacists in the industries and the manufacturing and distribution sectors.

“So, there are actually not enough pharmacists,” she told reporters after attending the World Pharmacists Day Games here yesterday.

“For now, more pharmacists are in demand due to a rational use of medicine and to provide sufficient information about medicine,” said Dr Salmah.

Earlier, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya called on Malaysians not to be complacent in combating dengue as cases might increase again with the rainy season.

“From what we observed in the beginning of the year, there were nearly 3,000 dengue cases reported each week.

“But the number has gone down significantly to about 1,000 cases a week now.

“As at Week 37, there has been a significant drop in cases compared to the same period last year,” he said.

As of Sept 16, there were 68,204 dengue cases with 153 deaths reported nationwide, a 14.4% drop from last year.

Meanwhile, dengue cases in Negri Sembilan have risen by almost 30% this year but the number of deaths has fallen from 19 to 11.

State health director Dr Zainudin Mohd Ali said there were 2,675 cases this year, with massive outbreaks reported between March and June.

“Despite the increase in cases, we are glad that the number of casualties has reduced.

“Since Week 23 (the end of May), there were only about 40 cases of dengue per week,” he said in Seremban yesterday.

Dr Zainudin said his team managed to reduce the number of hotspots.

“Between March and June, we got reports of between eight and 12 hotspots per week. But from July, these have been reduced to between one and two each week,” he said.

However, with the current wet spell, Dr Zainudin warned that the number of dengue cases could go up again if the public continued to have a lackadaisical attitude towards searching and destroying breeding grounds.