Tanzanians are slowly and quietly killing themselves both economically and health-wise by the irrational medicine use that is increasing their treatment and recovery durations, pharmacists have said.
The Pharmacy Council of Tanzania Deputy Registrar, Ms Leah Chenya told the ‘Sunday News’ in an exclusive interview that the council was extremely worried about the current trends which show that anti-microbial resistance was at alarming heights.
“During the time when chloroquine was the prescribed drug for malaria, one was assured that after a certain amount of days taking it, they are back on their feet. Today, the length of time to recover from the same disease is longer largely because people are taking medicines the way they see fit,” she said.
Anti-microbial resistance are infections caused by resistant microorganisms which often fail to respond to conventional treatment, resulting in prolonged illness, greater risk of death and higher costs.
Ms Chenya said that the trends were adversely hurting the economy, because the government spends a lot of money on the expenditure drugs that if taken the right way would help people recovery quicker and hence maintain production levels.
She said that should these tendencies continue to prevail, the chances for scientists and researchers being able to come up with remedies of the commonest problems will be very difficult because of the constant medicine changes.
“We often hear these days people talking among themselves that malaria or flu put them into bed for over a week and that it was God’s wish.
People are missing the point and the point is, before you decide to swallow medicine seek advice from a qualified doctor,” she said.
Recently, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare reached another milestone in ensuring that the public gets quality services by launching the Standard Treatment Guidelines (STG) and National Essential Medicines List.
Speaking at the occasion, the Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Hussein Mwinyi said that the launching was long awaited and that was useful for the standardisation of the quality of the prescription and dispensing of drugs.
“The list is the fourth editor and the producers have taken into account current new medical developments and methods. These are essential tools and will go a long way into ensuring rational use of medicines,” he said.
The Chief Medical Officer, Dr Donan Mmbando said that irrational use of medicines is a major problem worldwide and that it saddened him when he hears of cases where a doctor doesn’t refer to existing tools for fear that the patient will undermine him.
“We are very proud of this launching and is another milestone in our quest to ensure that Tanzanians get the best health care. Prevention is the cornerstone of reducing the burden of disease in the country and the use of these tools will help improve health care,” he said.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, Dr Rufaro Chatora said that rational use of medicines requires that patients received medications appropriate to their clinical needs, in doses that meet their own individual requirements, for an adequate period of time and at the lowest cost to them and their community.
Dr Chatora said that the overuse, underuse or misuse of medicines results in wastage of scarce resources and widespread health hazards. “Examples of irrational use of medicines include: Use of too many medicines per patient (poly-pharmacy); inappropriate use of anti-microbials, often in inadequate dosage, for non-bacterial infections; over-use of injections when oral formulations would be more appropriate, among others,” he said.
According to the WHO fact sheet on rational use of medicines, more than 50 per cent of all medicines are prescribed, dispensed or sold inappropriately and half of all patients fail to take medicines correctly while in developing countries, less than 40 per cent of patients in the public sector and 30 per cent in the private sector are treated according to clinical guidelines.
By MASEMBE TAMBWE, Tanzania Daily News
