Antibiotics are being used in a dangerous manner in Sri Lanka. At the moment, 13 percent of total expenditure of the Medical Supplies Division of the Health Ministry is for antibiotics.
A National Strategic Plan has been formulated to address this issue, Health Ministry's Deputy Director General (Laboratory Services) Dr. B.V.S.H. Beneragama said.
Speaking at a press conference at the Health Promotion Bureau in Colombo yesterday, he said there are thousands of ‘quacks’ in Sri Lanka who ‘prescribe’ antibiotics for patients and become popular. Some qualified doctors also prescribe antibiotics which are not necessary for their patients to become popular.
According to Dr. Beneragama, antibiotics are given to chickens so that they gain weight. Some ayurvedic doctors too prescribe antibiotics. People go to private pharmacies and ask for antibiotics without prescriptions. But antibiotics should be issued only on prescription.
Once anti-microbial resistance is developed, the entire country and the world will be in danger without any antibiotics to treat diseases. It takes over 25 years and billions of dollars to develop an antibiotic, but within a very short time such antibiotics can become useless.
The WHO says by 2050, around 50 million will die without antibiotics to treat their diseases, he said.
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