Health Observatory: Romania among EU's top 5 by use of antibiotics

Romania is ranked among EU's top 5 heaviest consumers of antibiotics, a situation which favors the emergence of treatment resistant bacteria, the Romanian Health Observatory (ORS) said in a report this Friday. 

"The high consumption of antibiotics has turned Romania into one of the European countries with the highest rates of proliferation of treatment-resistant bacteria. Antibiotic resistance has been termed at a UN meeting as 'the biggest and most urgent global risk factor which requires international and national attention'.The World Health Organization has named the period November 13 - 19, 2017 World Antibiotic Awareness Week (...) The Romanians' consumption of antibiotics is excessive, which favors and renders even more serious the emergence of treatment-resistant bacteria. Romania ranks first in the EU as the state with the highest percentage of use of antibiotics without prescription," the Romanian Health Observatory release states. 

According to the cited source, the patients or their families often pressure the pharmacist or the doctor to release antibiotics even when their use is not medically justifiable. 

According to experts, the release notes, antibiotics do not reduce fever and have no effect in colds and respiratory infections. 

"The commercial factor weighs heavily in the distribution of antibiotics to the population, contributing to the unjustified increase in the use of antibiotics through questionable promotion methods. The relevant legal regulations are vague and rarely applied, and in their turn doctors and pharmacists sometimes prescribe antibiotics unnecessarily, practicing a defensive medicine that does not pursue the patient's well-being, but avoiding at any cost a potential situation where the health professional would be at tort. The insufficient information on this subject even among medical staff also contributes to this situation," the release informs. 

ORS goes on to say that red flags in this respect have been raised as early as 2014, like for instance by then Director of the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Marc Sprenger, who cautioned that Romania is "in the red zone" and that solutions heavily depend on political will. AGERPRES .