Thai Public Health Min aims to lower rate of antibiotics resistance

[webfact]

Min of Public Health aims to lower rate of antibiotics resistance

 

 

BANGKOK, 14 March 2017 (NNT) - The Ministry of Public Health is closely monitoring the use of antibiotics treating the common cold, diarrhea, and flesh wounds, in order to reduce the number of drug resistance cases in Thailand by 50 percent. 

Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Public Health Dr Sophon Mekthon revealed that due to the rise in cases of drug resistance in Thailand, the ministry is moving forward with its 2017-2021 plan to reduce illnesses from drug resistance by 50 percent in humans and 30 percent in animals.

 

In addition, the ministry has set a five-year goal of educating the general public on the use of antibiotics and increase the rate of public awareness by 20 percent. The Food and Drug Administration will be advised to monitor the sales of over-the-counter antibiotics to prevent misuse. 

Meanwhile, the Foundation for Consumers has collected samples of pork from six markets and eight retailers in Bangkok as well as one online store to examine antibiotics residue. The excessive consumption of meat with residual tetracycline can result in greater drug resistance.

 

-- nnt 2017-03-14

[trogers]

And Section 44 shall be served on to those antibiotics...

[craigt3365]

Easy to solve.  Make them only available via doctors orders.  Close down pharmacies that sell them without prescriptions.  I know, I know....LOL

[rkidlad]

Yes, stop prescribing antibiotics for trivial matters. Tell the patient to rest, drink lots of water and eat your vitamins and nutrients. If you're still feeling rough, go back and see the doctor. 

 

Sadly, I think many people will feel short changed if the doctor doesn't make them feel special and give them a high-so hospital bag full of big boy medicine. That medicine bag gives you unlimited small talk to tell every man and his dog about your problems. 

[maoro2013]

Well, it is the germs that are resistant, they have developed a resistance due to the excess of antibiotics to which they are exposed.

 

Might be too late, the resistant strains are already out there.

 

Probably a need to produce some different antibiotics and use them with care.

[madmitch]

2 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

Easy to solve.  Make them only available via doctors orders.  Close down pharmacies that sell them without prescriptions.  I know, I know....LOL

The doctors are as bad as anyone. The cocktail of drugs that are prescribed on a visit to the hospital or doctors, usually including an antibiotic, is ridiculous. I sometimes think they still study medicine from textbooks dating from the 1950s.

[fruitman]

13 minutes ago, maoro2013 said:

Probably a need to produce some different antibiotics and use them with care.

You mean the farang have to develop new antibiotics because the asians overused them and now they don't work anymore.

[maoro2013]

Just now, fruitman said:

You mean the farang have to develop new antibiotics because the asians overused them and now they don't work anymore.

Well in the 3rd world it is a common practice to issue all sorts of medicine over the counter, without any prescription. I lived in countries like this most my working life and many people self medicate, including myself, but, in my case,  not with antibiotics.

[fruitman]

2 minutes ago, maoro2013 said:

Well in the 3rd world it is a common practice to issue all sorts of medicine over the counter, without any prescription. I lived in countries like this most my working life and many people self medicate, including myself, but, in my case,  not with antibiotics.

You mean that in the 3rd world they issue loads of copycopy medicines which didn't pay the copyrights to the doctors who developed them. And they use them soo much that now the same doctors have to develop new medicines because they don't work anymore for anybody. Even not for the patients who did pay the doctors by buying the original medicines.

 

So now the medicinecompanies have to develop new medicines and the customers in the West have to pay for that. Thank you 3rd world.

[jak2002003]

2 minutes ago, maoro2013 said:

Well in the 3rd world it is a common practice to issue all sorts of medicine over the counter, without any prescription. I lived in countries like this most my working life and many people self medicate, including myself, but, in my case,  not with antibiotics.

Meanwhile in the 1st world... (I know from the UK experience) you can't even get to see a doctor without book an appointment with a GP who will fit you in in about a weeks time, then refer you to doctor in another week or 2, who will cancel the appointment at the last minute and move it to the next week... buy which time you are so sick you need a serious operation, or have gotten complications.

 

If they had given you antibiotics at the start this waste of time and money would have been avoided and you would be well.

 

Now you are in a NHS hospital for a routine operations, but you end up contracting a SUPER BUG and die. 

 

I think I would rather the '3rd world' method of getting medication when I need it, seeing a doctor within a few hours of getting ill, and not getting a super bug and dying. 

 

 

[jonclark]

There is no single strategy here. It must be a multi pronged approach.

1) Educate the public on basic prevention and treatment of common colds etc.

2) Make antibiotics prescription only - no pharamacies.

3) Most Important (imo) remove the incentive for doctors to prescribe antibiotics so frequently by removing the financial incentives offered by drug producers for prescribing their products.  - This a huge issue in all countries globally and the only real solution is to make antibiotics controlled substances in hospital - that require 2 or more sign offs before they are authorized to out patients on a prescription. 

[Nurseynutcase]

Antibiotic resistance is not confined to the third world.  It is prevalent in the first world, due to overuse of antibiotics in the general population and massive overuse in the farming industry.

 

There has not been any new anti-biotics developed for many years.

 

Antibiotics take many years to develop, meanwhile bacteria are changing to become resistant to current antibiotics.

 

I worked in general practice in the UK as a nurse prescriber so I am well aware of the difficulty in deciding if a sore throat is due to a virus or a bacterial infection.  Similarly with chest infections.

 

Until a simple. quick and cheap test with accurate results becomes available I fear that over prescribing will continue.

 

BTW - we never kept patients waiting for an appointment, everyone was seen on the day, this meant that we could see and assess patients and ask them to return the day after if we felt an infection may begin to resolve on it's own.

 

One general practice piloted a trial whereby patients were given antibiotic prescription but told to get them in a few days time if their symtoms had not resolved or began to get worse - they were followed up after a week to see what had happened - alot of work involved but it was successful.  I don't know what happened after that.

 

One of the problems is that people will go to the pharmacy and be given antibiotic, take them for one or two days and not finish the course - this leads to increased antibiotic resistance.

 

There have been many campaigns in the UK to educate the public about this, with only limited effect I am afraid.

[connda]

In addition, the ministry has set a five-year goal of educating the general public on the use of antibiotics and increase the rate of public awareness by 20 percent.

 

Blame it on the public.  How about educating the supposively educated doctors who hand out antibiotics like its candy.