Lawmaker mulls probe on medicine woes

CAGAYAN DE ORO Representative Rufus B. Rodriguez (2nd District) is pushing for an investigation over reports by the World Health Organization (WHO) that antibiotics and other essential medicines may soon lose their efficacy to cure disease.

The WHO warned that the world may be returning to an era when there were no effective drug treatments for many infections.

The WHO said this is because of the many instances of misuse and irrational use of drugs, which is a major cause of drug resistance.

It said another cause is the over-prescription of medicines wherein an estimated 50 to 70 percent of the antibiotics prescribe by health workers was unnecessary.

Rodriguez said there is a need to address these problems as he filed House Resolution 2451, which was co-authored by Abante Mindanao Representative Maximo Rodriguez Jr.

“There is a need also to come up with legislation preventing the misuse of medicines and prevent over-prescription,” he said.

The WHO stressed that while the onset of antimicrobial resistance to drugs was inevitable, there is still a need for a more comprehensive antimicrobial surveillance system to encompass most, if not all, major disease-causing bacteria.

It said that antimicrobial resistance is both a medical and financial catastrophe as second-line treatments are much more expensive with difference in cost between first and second line drugs. (Annabelle L. Ricalde)