The Antibiotic Stewardship Program has been an effective measure for preventing antimicrobial resistance. Last year, this program was created in response to the misuse of antibiotics.
Group for Technical Assistance Lalitpur, PHECT Nepal, Kathmandu Model and Kirtipur Hospital collaborated with the Henry Ford Health System Global Health Initiative for this important program in Nepal. According to Dr. Rajesh Dhoj Joshi, it was necessary to develop this program to provide impactful knowledge about antibiotic resistance, treatment guidelines, and training to physicians about antibiotics prescriptions. During this period, this program has been fruitful in terms of engaging physicians and the Ministry of Health and Population, while raising awareness about the right use and misuse of antibiotics to the public.
Global Health Initiative Infectious Disease Division Director Dr. Marcus Zervos said that like in every other country of the world, antibiotic resistance has been increasing rapidly in Nepal. Antibiotic resistance is a worldwide problem, so it is very important for every one of us to think about some timely solutions. Thus, in Nepal, we have to take some serious steps to control the misuse of antibiotics.
The misuse of antibiotics can be traced to patients carelessly buying medicine from the local pharmacy shops and consuming it without any prescription from authorized doctors. Also, the local shopkeepers selling medicines without formal prescriptions has been a major issue. Therefore, the strong economic competition between the pharmacy shops and the patients diagnosing themselves, without seeing a doctor, are the main areas we need to target to prevent ineffective consumption and misuse of antibiotics.
