Tackling antibiotic resistance a shared responsibility: Ministry of Health

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 15): Health and veterinary professionals, the public as well as the agriculture sector need to play an important role in tackling the threat of antibiotic resistance in patients and livestock.

The Ministry of Health in a statement today said, antibiotic resistance decreases the effectiveness of treatment for certain bacterial infections.

It said infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria would result in the patient failing to respond to standard treatments making the disease difficult to cure.

“Such situations can increase the risk of death and the spread of diseases to others. Antibiotic resistance can also cause health problems to animals, when sick animals cannot be properly treated.

“If the animals are food-producing livestock and the disease cannot be controlled, the food source will be reduced eventually jeopardising food security,” the statement said.

The statement was released in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry in conjunction with the 2019 National Antibiotic Awareness Week Campaign held yesterday at the National Institutes of Health in Setia Alam.

National data shows streptococcus pneumonia, a bacterium that often causes infections in the community, is 36 per cent resistant to Erythromycin.

Meanwhile, Acinetobacter baumannii, a bacterium commonly found in hospital patients was shown to be 41 per cent resistant to Meropenem, an antibiotic specifically for the treatment of complicated infections.

As such, according to the statement antibiotics should only be used for bacterial infections and are not required for viral infections such as common colds, sore throat or dengue fever.

Patients should adhere to their doctor's prescription if given antibiotics and use of antibiotics for growth booster purposes or in healthy livestock should be avoided.

“Malaysia has banned the use of colistin antibiotics in livestock and will expand the list of antibiotics to be banned for growth boosters in the coming years.

“The rational and prudent use of antibiotics is the responsibility of all parties and awareness on the proper use of antibiotics is essential to keep us and the future generations healthy,” it said.