Combat drug resistance – Daily Nation

The increasing tendency to abuse medicinal drugs is a growing challenge in the health sector.

There are a number of reasons for this. One is the role played by quacks in their backstreet clinics that many people resort to because they are cheaper or for the relative ease with which they can obtain from the black market and dispense the drugs the patients may prefer.

Another factor is the folly of self-medication, which puts patients at a grave risk.

Though the public health sector is fairly well-developed with dispensaries, health clinics dotted around the country, these institutions are not always adequately staffed by qualified health personnel and often lack medicines.

This is what drives many desperate patients into seeking alternatives and they end up in the hands of incompetent people masquerading as professional health workers.

Antibiotics have recently been the most abused and the consequence is the growing resistance to these vital drugs.

Resistance to a particular medication poses a deadly challenge, as alternatives may not be available, or are obtained at a higher cost to the individuals concerned and the public healthcare system.

Globally, according to available statistics, more than 10 million people are the risk of dying from drug-resistant diseases. In Kenya, at least 700,000 people die every year from illnesses arising from drug resistance.

The gravity of the problem is evident in the numerous unnecessary anti-biotic prescriptions.

In 2011 alone, there were 40 million such useless prescriptions that endangered the lives of those administered with the drugs.

As the experts have pointed out, the world is already reeling under the dire economic and health consequences as vital medicines becoming ineffective.

Unless there is a concerted global effort, the future generations could be doomed, what with the increasing inability to treat diseases with the existing drugs.