Drug Misuse in Asia

Drug misuse in Asia

I saw this article over at the straitstimes.com, thought that many of us living in Indonesia should be aware of this…

JAKARTA – RIA Pane took her 7-year-old daughter Kezia to a doctor in Jakarta to check on her fever and sore throat, and was prescribed seven drugs, including antibiotics and medicine to prevent febrile seizures.

Experts say it was another classic, but only too common, case of over-medication, or prescribing drugs patients do not need. Here, the antibiotic was unnecessary, as was the drug to prevent febrile seizures as the child had no history of such attacks, said several pharmacists and doctors who were asked by Reuters.

Experts warn that driven by profits from selling medicine, some doctors from Indonesia to Hong Kong are overprescribing medicines, a practise they say will be disastrous in the longer term.

The most recent example of growing resistance involves the drug oseltamivir, which researchers in the United States found was now ineffective against 98 percent of the H1N1 seasonal human influenza virus strains.

Oseltamivir is known by the brand Tamiflu and manufactured by Roche AG. Oseltamivir is also recommended as a first line of defence against the H5N1 bird flu virus in case it triggers a flu pandemic and experts are now questioning how well, and how long, the drug will stand up against the H5N1 virus.

Apart from eventually reducing the effectiveness of drugs, exposing bacteria and viruses to drugs unnecessarily also has other serious consequences. ‘They harm the patient. The more drugs, the worse the compliance, especially for old people. They fall easily because of drug interaction and side effects. They get dizzy, hypotension, it is something we don’t recommend,’ Chui said.

Doctors in Indonesia often prescribe antibiotics to patients suffering a common cold when such drugs are only to be used for bacterial infections.

Experts say such a mentality has led not only to polypharmacy, but also the use of compounding medicine, known in Indonesia as ‘.‘puyer

Compounding medicine is the practise of crushing different drugs into a powder in a bowl and dividing it into small sachets. Sometimes it is mixed with syrups. It is carried out under strict guidelines in some countries. But in Indonesia, it has been used liberally for decades, particularly to treat health problems in children.

Experts warn this practise could result in errors as the drugs may not be evenly divided or pharmacists may not clean the bowl thoroughly, leaving residues from previous prescriptions. — REUTERS

This ‘puyer’ thing…. it is my first encounter here in medan… i never really quite understand.. coz, as a parent, its really a hassel to prepare for a young babies.. and its not easy to take for the kids as well…

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