UN HEALTH AGENCY SEEKS TO COMBAT DANGEROUS MISUSE AND OVERUSE OF
MEDICINES
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New York, Mar 29 2004 10:00AM
With misuse and overuse accounting for almost half the total
global use of medicines with potential severe consequences such
as drug resistance and even death, the United Nations health
agency today called for multilateral partnerships to set up ad-
vocacy and education programmes especially in developing coun-
tries.
"Most people see a lack of access to medicines as the main prob-
lem", the interim Director of Essential Drugs and Medicines Pol-
icy at the UN World Health Organization (WHO), Hans Hogerzeil,
said in a news release on the eve of a global meeting in Chiang
Mai, Thailand. "Unfortunately, the irrational use of available
medicines is also a major threat to health and leads to consid-
erable waste."
Irrational use of medicines includes over-treatment of a mild
illness, inadequate treatment of a serious illness, misuse of
anti-infective drugs, over-use of injections, self-medication of
prescription drugs and premature interruption of treatment. Sev-
eral country figures show that such practices are frequent, and
not exclusively in developing countries.
At the Chiang Mai meeting opening tomorrow WHO and donor govern-
ments, foundations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
will spend four days looking at ways to improve use of medicines
in developing countries.
Almost half of all medicines globally are used irrationally,
with such potential consequences as adverse drug reactions, drug
resistance, protracted illness and death. In addition, financial
cost incurred by individuals and governments due to irrational
use is often extremely high, particularly in developing coun-
tries.
"Misuse of antibiotics, overuse of injections, and under-use of
life-extending drugs for illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, heart dis-
ease, and other chronic illnesses together constitute a global
epidemic of irrational use of medicines," said Jonathan Quick,
incoming president of Management Sciences for Health, a meeting
co-sponsor. "This epidemic results in untold needless suffering
and costs millions of lives each year."
According to figures gathered by surveys presented to WHO, in
2000 about 60 per cent of antibiotics in Nigeria were prescribed
unnecessarily. In Nepal, more than half of antibiotics pre-
scribed in 1996 were not needed and 40 per cent of medicine ex-
penditures in the same year was wasted due to inappropriate pre-
scriptions.
Overuse of most medicines contributes to drug resistance. For
example, overuse of chloroquine, the traditional remedy for ma-
laria, has led to resistance which has been recorded in over 80
countries. Resistance to penicillin, used to treat gonorrhoea,
is present in as many as 98 per cent of patients in certain re-
gions.
Irrational use of drugs due to inappropriate prescription can
also lead to adverse drug events causing illness or death. In
the United Sates, adverse drug events represent one of the six
leading causes of death.