Caretaker Punjab Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare and Population Welfare Dr. Jamal Nasir has said that the unnecessary use of antibiotics has adversely affected public health and reduced the effectiveness of antibiotic drugs.
was signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Vice Chancellor Federal Health Services Academy Dr. Shehzad Ali on Sunday to prevent unnecessary use of antibiotics. Speaking on the occasion, the minister said that under this plan, some districts would be selected in the province and apart from creating awareness to prevent the misuse of antibiotics in their rural health centers, legal measures would also be taken under which medical stores, selling antibiotics without a valid doctors prescription would face legal action.
Dr. Jamal Nasir said that apart from the government doctors, the doctors at the private clinics would also be informed about which diseases and in which case antibiotics could be given. The provincial minister thanked the Federal Health Services Academy and all the supporting institutions, and said “ We have to pay attention to our future generations, we have to protect our children from the wrong and unnecessary use of antibiotics so that they can become active and healthy citizens of the country,” he added.
The Vice Chancellor Federal Health Services Academy appreciated the services of Dr. Jamal Nasir in the field of public health and said that the caretaker government was working with great attention in the fields of public health. He said that with hard work and patriotism, challenges facing the country could be tackled and the most important of them was to run the public health sector in the right direction.
It is pertinent to mention here that under the MoU, joint efforts will be made to minimize unnecessary use of antibiotics in collaboration with a Danish organization, International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions, World Health Organization and Association for Social Development Pakistan.
