Pharmaceutical Society Of Ghana Cautions Against Increasing Abuse Of Antibiotics

The Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH) has raised concerns about the incessant abuse of antibiotics by Ghanaians.

Antibiotics are medications that doctors may prescribe to treat bacterial infections. They work by killing bacteria and preventing them from multiplying.

The main types of antibiotics include phenoxymethylpenicillin, flucloxacillin and amoxicillin.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of PSGH, Samuel Kow Donkoh, excessive use of antibiotics will lead to the development of antibiotic resistance which makes it difficult to treat bacterial infection posing a serious threat to public health.

In an interview with JoyNews, Mr Donkoh said “It is a silent killer, it’s a silent pandemic and a huge threat to the future of antibiotics or antimicrobial usage in the country so what we expect the government to do is to make sure they put a lot of investment behind it so that we can improve our surveillance system so that we can identify the various resistance patterns against the various antimicrobials that we have in this country.”

He explained that currently, many Ghanaians abuse antibiotics and until drastic measures are put in place, they might have an immune system that will be resistant to antibiotics.

As a result of this, he stated that when individuals require these drugs to treat specific conditions, the medication will be ineffective for them.

The CEO of PSGH stressed that this could increase the mortality rate, and referred to a similar situation where some antibiotics became less effective and it took some time and resources to develop an improved version.

To avoid such a situation, Mr Donkoh urged the government and other stakeholders to leverage every opportunity to spread this awareness of drug abuse.

He also called on the government and other stakeholders to invest in research work.