When Luluk Lely Soraya’s nine-month-old baby developed diarrhea, she panicked and immediately took her child to a pediatrician.
Much to her dismay, however, the doctor gave the baby nothing more than oral rehydration therapy. It was not long before she took matters into her own hands and gave her daughter antibiotics, which she believed would kill the virus that made her baby sick.
“The diarrhea got even worse,” she said on Monday, looking back at the “mistake” she made some six years ago.
Luluk is not the only parent who believes antibiotics are a panacea for all illness — but not many people understand the side effects or consequences of irrational antibiotic use.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one such consequence. Defined as the ability of micro-organisms to evade the action of the drugs used to cure the infections they cause, AMR is increasingly recognized as a global public health issue.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says this could hamper the control of many infectious diseases.
In a release received by The Jakarta Post recently, the WHO urged countries to reinforce national policy on the prudent use of antibiotics to reduce the incidence of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
“Some bacteria have developed mechanisms which render them resistant to many of the antibiotics normally used for their treatment,” the organization says.
The WHO warns that there may be few or no alternative options for therapy for antibiotic-resistant infections. “They constitute a growing and global public health problem,” according to the press release.
Luluk said irrational use of antibiotics was widespread in Indonesia.
“Some of our members have had an experience in giving their sick toddlers antibiotics when they did not actually need them,” said a Foundation for Caring Parents member.
Parents sometimes panic when their children are sick and will protest when a doctor does not prescribe antibiotics, she said. “I think most of the time pediatricians face intense pressure from parents to prescribe antibiotics.”
She added that parents should see antibiotics as an ultimate weapon that comes out last in the war against children’s diseases.
The WHO said it was important for governments to ensure rational antibiotic use, including educating of health care workers and the public on antibiotics’ appropriate use.
It recommended that the government focus control and prevention efforts on surveillance of antimicrobial resistance, introduce legislation to stop the sale of antibiotics without prescriptions and adhere to infection prevention and control measures, including hand washing, particularly in health care facilities.
“Successful control of multi-drug resistant microorganisms has been documented in many countries and existing and well-known infection prevention and control measures can effectively reduce transmission of multi-drug resistant organisms if rigorously and systematically implemented,” the organization says.
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