A bid by the Drug Controller General  of India (DCGI) to contain irrational antibiotic use, which is known to be a key factor in fostering anti-microbial resistance, has run into rough weather. The DGCI proposal was in the form of a suggested amendment to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act by way of addition of  Schedule HX, which would make  prescriptions mandatory for the purchase of 74 listed drugs. Schedule HX, meant also to keep a count of over the counter antibiotics sales,  would additionally require doctors to give prescriptions in duplicate, one to be kept in DGCI records, and one to be retained by the chemist for at least two years.

One of the reasons behind this move to contain anti-microbial resistance, it is believed, is a report that appeared in the Lanclet on the superbug NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1). NDM-1 is resistant to the most powerful antibiotics, and the Lanclet report is thought to have put a question mark on the influx of medical tourists to the country.

The DCGI’s proposal is being reviewed by the Union Health Minister. The minister allegedly was of the view that due to a lack of qualified doctors in remote areas of the country, insistence on prescriptions would deprive a large number of people of life saving medicines. It is believed that the minister was influenced by chemists and druggists, who argued that 70% of the population lives in rural and remote areas, where there is a dearth of qualified doctors. A ministry spokesperson said however, that the DCGI proposal had been only deferred, not dropped.

 

SOURCE: ndm1bacteria.com/health-minister-to-block-antibacteria-control-in-india