Pakistan among largest consumers of antibiotics, NA told

 The National Assembly was informed on Friday that Pakistan is amongst the largest consumers of antibiotics, resultantly, there is an increasing resistance to even broad-spectrum antibiotics.

In a written reply to a question of Tahira Aurangzeb, the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination cited major causes including self-medication in more than 51 percent of population, a large number of quacks who prescribe antibiotics, availability of over-the-counter antibiotics and inappropriate prescription of antibiotics.

The National AMR Surveillance System has been established by the National Institute of Health (NIH) under the Health Ministry that includes various public and private sector laboratories and health facilities, which share data on the platform.

This data has been reported annually to the WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance and use Surveillance System (GLASS) since 2017. The data is an evidence of rising trend in the resistance to broad-spectrum antibiotics in the country.

Giving details of the steps taken by the government to stop this increasing antibiotic resistance in the country, the written reply stated that the Ministry of Health has included Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) containment as priority agenda for health s