Chemical Sellers Schooled on Diarrhoea Management

Chemical Sellers in the Bolgatanga Municipality and its environs, have been schooled on how to effectively manage diarrhoea, by encouraging their clients to use acceptable and efficient drugs to treat such cases.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have come to the conclusion that a combination of Zinc tablets and Oral Rehydration Salt (ORS) were potent drugs for the treatment of diarrhoea in children under five.

The Northern Zonal Office of the Pharmacy Council which organized the training for owners of licensed chemical shops and their assistants, advised the participants not to treat diarrhoea cases with antibiotics, such as amoxicillin, septrin and flagyl, especially when there was no blood in stool, because antibiotics could not work on illnesses caused by viruses and in this case diarrhea.

Mr Abdul Latif, a staff of the Council who doubled as resource person for the workshop, explained that the Council was repeating the workshop on diarrhoea management because results of a post research on diarrhoea management from earlier training indicated low response to the method of treatment.

He indicated that diarrhoea was treatable, however, treatment must be done with the recommended drugs as quickly as possible, to avoid getting it complicated which sometimes resulted in preventable deaths.

He said diarrhoea in children was different from those in adults, because those in children were most often caused by virus infection which could not be treated with antibiotics, such as Septrin, Flagyl, Amoxicillin, Ampicillin and Metrolex F.

Mr Latif warned that antidiarrhoeals like Leprolex and immodium, were too strong for children and dangerous to their health.

He, therefore, reminded them of the need to recommend ORS and zinc tablets to clients who reported diarrhoea, indicating that they were the most potent combination to stop cases of diarrhoea.

Mr Latif said while zinc stopped diarrhoea fast and ORS rehydrated the diarrhoea infected person, the participants should counsel their clients to take zinc for the full 10 days cause, to prevent episodes of diarrhoea, adding that it would not cause constipation in children.

He urged the participants to refer suspected complicated diarrhoea cases to health facilities, and encouraged mothers to give children with diarrhoea more fluids, increase breast milk intake and continue with the ORS solution anytime the child had lose stool.

Mr Latif urged the participants to exhibit good customer care and improve rapport with patients, because they needed better service and care in their state.

The Zonal Manager for the Northern Zone at the Pharmacy Council, Mr Prince Darko, announced that the Council had changed the name of Licensed Chemical Sellers to Over the Counter Medicine Sellers (OTCMS), following amendment of the Pharmacy Council Act 489.

He told the participants that OTCMS would now have to acquire new signboards with the new inscription at their facilities, adding that by September, all OTCMS would have raised their signboards for inspection.