Sale of antibiotics without prescription must be stopped: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has emphasised stopping the trend of using antibiotics without a physician’s prescription in the country.

To that effect, she stressed the necessity of stopping the sale of antibiotics without prescription during a meeting with a noted biologist from Oxford University on Sunday at Ganabhaban, reports bdnews24.com citing BSS.

“The sale of antibiotics without physician's prescription must be stopped,” the prime minister’s speech writer Md Nazrul Islam quoted her as saying during the meeting with Prof Timothy E Walsh, director of the biology department of Ineos Institute of Antimicrobial Research of the British university.

During the meeting, Hasina said her government has already stopped the archaic practice of prescribing antibiotics at community clinics nationwide.

"Now, only physicians at state-run hospitals are allowed to issue scripts for antibiotics,” she said.

The prime minister assured the Oxford professor that efforts by her government are underway to ensure that antibiotics cannot be sold without a prescription.

At the meeting, Prof Walsh warned that anti-microbial resistance, commonly known as AMR in pathology, has become an epidemic on the global stage.

“It will turn into a dire form if we can’t prevent it now, and will cause the death of millions of people in the future,” he said.

Sheikh Hasina, at the meeting, highlighted her government's success stories tied to the development of the health sector, including the establishment of specialised hospitals and institutes like the National Institute of Ophthalmology, Sheikh Russell Gastroliver Hospital, Cardiovascular Institute, Cancer and Neuro Science Hospital.

She also informed the visiting professor that her government has emphasised research in agriculture, fundamental science and medicine, highlighting awarding of government grants to 200 Bangladeshi graduate institutions for doctoral and post-doctoral research.

In response, Prof Walsh proposed introducing Bangabandhu-IOI Fellowship for Bangladeshi students to pave the way for conducting research in medical and fundamental sciences at his institute.