Hyderabad: Over 717 pharmacies in the state were booked for selling antibiotics without prescriptions in December 2013.
The enforcement wing of the state Drugs Control Administration had conducted random checks and found that a large number of people were buying antibiotics directly over the counter.
Director of Drug Control Dr B.L. Meena said, “We have found that affluent people too do not carry prescriptions to chemists for buying medicines. When some of them were questioned by our staff, it was found that they were mostly self prescriptions, which is very dangerous.”
The highest number of offenders were in Hyderabad with 71 shops followed by Nalgonda, 41 shops, and Nizamabad with 40 shops.
The abuse is rampant in antibiotics for fever, cough, cold, diarrhoea and infectious diseases.
Dr Yadgiri Rao, president of Indian Medical Association said, “Antibiotics are most abused in paediatric cases. A large amount of antibiotics is prescribed for controlling the disease in children. While paediatricians claim that they do so only if required, desperate mothers are not ready to wait for the treatment to take effect and are often hopping from one doctor to another to see that the child recovers fast. This proves disastrous later when high dosages cause resistance in the body.”
The pharmacies were raided following continuous pressure from the medical fraternity and also the state government.
A senior officer said, “The shops were closed for two days and that is bad for business. Also, customers learn that something has gone wrong. This is a two-pronged strategy, one of punishing the chemists and also of warning customers not to take medicines without prescriptions.”
