‘Stop prescribing and popping random pills’

Seminar held on rationalising use of antibiotics.

KARACHI: “Doctors need to really start listening to their patients, instead of prescribing tests and medicines randomly that are not only expensive and unnecessary, but very misleading and harmful in the overall patient management,” said Dr Naseem Salahuddin, head of infectious diseases at the Indus Hospital.

Dr Salahuddin was among the panellists at the seminar, organised by the Indus Hospital in collaboration with the Infectious Diseases Society of Pakistan (IDSP), held on Thursday to discuss the ‘rational use of antibiotics’.

Attended by health-care experts from a diverse spectrum of disciplines including clinicians and primary care physicians, the seminar was addressed by Clinical Microbiologist Dr Altaf Ahmed, Dr Salahuddin, Head and Professor of Microbiology at the Aga Khan University Hospital Dr Afia Zafar.

Dr Ahmed said that infectious diseases remain a major source of morbidity and mortality in Pakistan, where there is not enough reliance on evidence based-diagnostic methods and laboratory testing for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. “There is too much reliance on guess-work and an absence of relevant clinical trials,” he said.

Highlighting the need for accurate diagnosis when approaching patients with fever, Dr Salahuddin said that although fever is the most prominent symptom of infections, it is also by far and large misunderstood and mismanaged by clinical practitioners. “The most important way to diagnose the cause of fever is by taking a thorough clinical history from the patient, studying its associated experienced symptoms and performing a careful clinical examination on the patient. Tests and specific medicines, if needed, may be ordered after careful consideration.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th,  2011.