Nghe An: Warning about children's drug resistance due to parents' arbitrarily buying and using drugs
(Baonghean) - People buying drugs without prescriptions and pharmacies selling drugs without prescriptions are among the causes of the alarming drug resistance situation today, especially in children.
Unforeseen consequences
For the past 15 days, the son of Ms. Le Thi Huyen in Quynh Van commune (Quynh Luu) has been treated for pneumonia at the Respiratory Department, Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital. Sadly, his health has been slow to improve because he is resistant to many antibiotics.
The cause of antibiotic resistance was determined: In the past, every time the child had a cough or runny nose, the child's mother would go to the pharmacy in the commune to buy medicine for the child. At first, she only took a few doses for the child to take, but when she saw that she felt better, she stopped giving it to the child.
“This time, my child took the medicine for more than 2 weeks without getting better, and his condition got worse. When I took him to the Respiratory Department of the Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital, the doctor said that my child was resistant to antibiotics because at home I gave him antibiotics indiscriminately, without following the regimen or the doctor's instructions.”
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| Antibiotics are being sold everywhere. Photo: Thanh Hoa |
Similar is the case of Trinh Nguyen Kim Ngan, 3 months old in Dien Hong commune (Dien Chau). Whenever Kim Ngan had respiratory symptoms, her mother arbitrarily gave her antibiotics from low to high doses in the hope that using antibiotics would quickly cure her illness, so when she was hospitalized, she was resistant to antibiotics. Up to now, her health has stabilized, but according to doctors, the next time she gets sick, it will definitely be more difficult to treat.
From my family's lesson, I advise mothers whose children are sick, even if they are mildly ill, to go to medical facilities for examination and timely treatment, and not to buy medicine on their own.
Since the beginning of 2018, Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital has coordinated with the Department of Health to conduct research on 600 patients who have been and are being treated at the hospital. The result is that out of 600 patients, more than 100 patients are resistant to 1 to more than 2 antibiotics.
Master, Doctor Bui Anh Son - Head of the Respiratory Department of the Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital informed: “In these 600 patients, when we put them into the study, we took fluid and found the cause of the disease. When we found the cause of the disease, we conducted an antibiotic susceptibility test to know the sensitivity of the bacteria to antibiotics. For drug-resistant patients, the hospital will consult with departments and leaders to find the most optimal treatment direction for the patient, then treat according to the consultation's opinion and closely monitor during the treatment process to ensure the best health for the patient. For multi-resistant cases, we must consult with a higher level, the National Children's Hospital, to find an effective treatment regimen for the patient. Treating multi-resistant patients is very difficult, sometimes we have to accept drugs that can leave side effects in order to preserve the patient's life".
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"Loose" management of non-prescription drug sales
According to the Ministry of Health: While countries around the world are using first-generation antibiotics, Vietnam is using third and fourth-generation antibiotics... Currently, anyone can buy antibiotics without a doctor's prescription. The management of prescription drug sales is not good.
The main cause of this situation is the awareness of the people, as well as the drug sellers. Drug sellers rely on old prescriptions from doctors to arbitrarily prescribe and sell drugs to patients with similar symptoms, while the pathology and manifestations are the same but each person must use different drugs.
In addition, according to some medical experts, the drug resistance is also caused by some doctors in private clinics. These doctors want patients to recover quickly without considering the consequences later when giving patients a very broad spectrum of antibiotics that kill many types of bacteria. Using a broad spectrum of antibiotics causes the entire bacterial population to change, mutate genes to resist broad-spectrum antibiotics, and many beneficial bacteria are also killed.
The reality is that the widespread use of antibiotics is also beneficial for patients. The problem is how the regulatory agencies control it. If there is no strict management and control of the sale of drugs without prescription, the abuse of antibiotics, or the widespread use of antibiotics, mild cases will become resistant to drugs, and when severe, it will be very difficult to treat... Currently, the sanctions for violations of the sale of drugs without prescription are not strong enough to deter, according to Decree 176, if there is a violation, the fine is only from 200,000 - 500,000 VND/time".
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| The Respiratory Department, Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital currently has many patients with antibiotic resistance. Photo: PV |
The overuse of antibiotics in treatment has been and is an alarming issue. More than ever, the whole society needs to get involved to raise awareness about the rational use of antibiotics, reduce antibiotic resistance in treatment, and ensure the health of the human race and future generations.
According to the World Health Organization, 90% of pharmacies in Vietnam sell antibiotics without a prescription, and 87% of people can easily go to a pharmacy to buy antibiotics without a doctor's prescription.
Every year, millions of people die worldwide from antibiotic resistance, including 1.4 million children. If people are resistant to antibiotics, they have to stay in hospital longer and the mortality rate increases in all age groups.
