AMR can be major health concern

WE read with interest the report “Antibiotics overuse can kill” ( The Star, Oct 17) and really applaud the launch of the national campaign to curb Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) by the Health Ministry.

There is no doubt that AMR will become a major public health concern worldwide in years to come as there is sharp decline in the production of new antibiotics to treat some of these ‘superbugs’ infections mainly due to irrational use of older antibiotics by both the patients and the healthcare practitioners.

In order to overcome the AMR menace, a collective and concerted action by all actors in health to empower the general public on rational use of antibiotic is needed.

A study assessing public knowledge and attitudes towards antibiotic use published by our research team in The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries, shows that 38% of the study respondents believed that taking antibiotics for viral infection will benefit them and 47% of expected their treating healthcare professionals to supply them with antibiotics for common viral infections.

This finding really shows that there is a dire need to educate the public on the rational use of antibiotics.

Realising the importance educating general public on the issues realted to AMR, the academic team at the Discipline of Social and Administrative Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in collaboration with an international network Action on Antibiotic Resistance (ReAct) since early this year has embarked on an AMR awareness programme by engaging a few local civil society organisations in Penang.

Such an initiative utilises the concept of community participatory method for the planning, mobilising and implementation of health promotions activities revolving around AMR themes.

An initial assessment of the community knowledge, attitude and perception on medicine use was conducted to facilitate the development of a culturally appropriate awareness programme.

In our programme, we make use of the social and organisational learning to instill awareness and strengthen the concept of rational use of medicines through individual capacity building.

We believe that, it is only when an individual is truly empowered with the knowledge on medicine use, a mindset or behaviour change can be achieved and sustained.

We really hope that all stakeholders in addressing the issue of AMR can engage local civil society organisations in order to empower the communities within on the rational use of antibiotics.

ASSOC PROF DR MOHAMED AZMI AHMAD HASSALI MS CHUA GIN NIE School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia