Zambia: Self-Prescription Causes Drug Resistance

PEOPLE prescribing their own medicines have caused drug resistance in communities, a doctor has said. Doctors Outreach Care International (DOC-I) co-founder, Emmanuel Makasa said in an interview this week that self-prescribing drugs resulted in under-dosing and people not taking their drugs correctly.

Dr Makasa, a volunteer doctor with the DOC-I mobile clinics, said self-prescription had led to the exposure of bacteria to drugs that could not kill the specific microbes because of wrong dosage or incorrect medication. This then gave the micro organism a chance to build resistance.

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