Fight against Superbug Infections

Antibiotics if not properly taken and completed may lead to super infection/drug resistance in our body. Due to wrong usage of antibiotics the bacteria is growing stronger, and makes it difficult to treat. With this, therapy will be prolonged, expensive and worst, could lead to hospitalization due to complications and drug resistance.

In line with the rise of  super infections and drug resistance, Watsons Personal Care Store came up with a program to prevent the increasing cases of antibiotics misuse. Read on for more details about this program.

The responsibility for turning this situation around is entirely in our hands. Irrational and inappropriate use of antimicrobials is by far the biggest driver of drug resistance. This includes overuse, when drugs are dispensed too liberally, sometimes to “be on the safe side”, sometimes in response to patient demand, but often for doctors and pharmacists to make more money.

Drug resistance costs vast amounts of money, and affects vast numbers of lives. The trends are clear and ominous. No action today means no cure tomorrow. At a time of multiple calamities in the world, we cannot allow the loss of essential medicines – essential cures for many millions of people – to become the next global crisis.

Here are simple tips against drug-resistant superbugs:

1. Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. Throw your tissue in proper places.


2. Do proper handwashing after coughing or sneezing. Use alcohol-based cleaners is possible.


3. Avoid touching your nose, eyes and mouth. Bacterias spread this way.


4. If you are seeing your doctor for a bad cold or flu, discuss the use of antibiotics with your physician. If its a viral infection, antibiotics aren't effective and will only add to the problem of antibiotic resistance.

When the first antibiotics were introduced in the 1940s, they were hailed as “wonder drugs”, the miracles of modern medicine. And rightly so. Widespread infections that killed many millions of people every year could now be cured. Major diseases, like syphilis, gonorrhoea, leprosy, and tuberculosis, lost much of their sting. The risk of death from something so common as strep throat or a child’s scratched knee virtually vanished.

The message on this issue is loud and clear. The world is on the brink of losing these miracle cures (antiobiotics).

The emergence and spread of drug-resistant pathogens has accelerated. More and more essential medicines are failing. The therapeutic arsenal is shrinking. The speed with which these drugs are being lost far outpaces the development of replacement drugs. In fact, the R&D pipeline for new antimicrobials has practically run dry.

Faulty practices and flawed assumptions have clearly made the inevitable development of drug resistance happen much sooner, rather than later. For some diseases, like malaria, our options are very limited as we have only a single class of effective drugs - artemisinin-based combination therapies - with which to treat more than 200 million falciparum cases each year. Although new drugs are under development, especially through the Medicines for Malaria Venture, a public-private partnership, early signals of artemisinin resistance have already been detected.

Similarly, gains in reducing child deaths due to diarrhoea and respiratory infections are at risk. And, while TB deaths are declining, in just the past year nearly half a million people developed multidrug-resistant TB, and a third of them died as a result. These are just a few of the stark warnings that must be heeded.

In the Philippines,  Watsons will launch a Compliance Pack for Antiobiotics on June 1, 2011 in order to prevent the increasing cases of antiobiotics misuse This program will promote awareness, accessibilty and affordability. Watsons Personal Care Store and Ritemed is one good means of encouraging patients to take their medications properly. Watsons has always been at the forefront of providing innovative products to help customers achieve better healthcare and better lives. Our products are designed to provide a positive effect in health and beauty of customers.

"Compliance Pack Antiobiotics" will be available in all Watsons Pharmacy outlets nationwide starting June 1, 2011!

with Reports from WHO