Self-medication is dangerous

There are a lot of Ghanaians going in for antibiotics injections at unauthorised premises thereby endangering their health, a health official said on Monday.

She said: "Too many injections have the potential of leading to the possibility of infections and the overuse of antibiotics was a concern because of the development of resistance."

Mrs Martha Gyansa-Lutterodt, Acting Head of Drugs Policy and Development Unit of the Ministry of Health, noted that the high number of drugs per patient given by prescribers was clearly not a desirable event as more drugs per patient meant more cost and more drug-related side effects.

She said her observation was supported by a recent survey the Ghana National Drug Programme conducted, which showed that the average number of drugs per prescription had fallen from five to four drugs.

She also said there was "enough anecdotal evidence" to suggest that people still persisted in abusing un-prescribed antibiotics.

The Acting Head of the Unit was speaking at a three-day training workshop in Accra for media practitioners drawn from the Health Communications Institute, a non-governmental organisation made up of media and health professionals.

About 30 participants are attending the workshop, organized by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the GNDP. It is on the theme:

"Strengthening Journalists For More Effective Health Reporting."

Mrs Gyansa-Lutterodt said: "We are not happy about the current misuse of medicines by the public. Rational use of medicines by the community has still not improved and the abuse of antibiotics appears not to have abated."

She charged the media to help in the education of Ghanaians on the rational use of drugs.

"We need to empower Ghanaians to self-medicate only when they have all the available information."

She said the MOH had set up a National Drug Information Resource Centre to provide "unbiased information on all medicine to doctors, pharmacists, nurses and the general public".

Additionally, Mrs Gyasa-Lutterodt said, a National Centre for Pharmaco-vigilance, the first of its kind in the Sub-Region at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, was set up about two years ago to monitor adverse effects of herbal and orthodox medicines to ensure the safety of patients.

Mr Bruce Hugman, World Health Organisation Consultant on Drugs Safety, called on the media to develop confidence in reporting on health issues.

He said there was the need for greater focus on drug safety issues to improve upon health care delivery.