Antibiotics are used to treat and prevent bacterial infections. They can be used to treat relatively mild conditions such as acne as well as potentially life-threatening conditions such as pneumonia. However, antibiotics often have no benefit for many other types of infection and using them unnecessarily would only increase the risk of antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial resistance is resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial drug that was originally effective for treatment of infections caused by it. Physicians and pharmacists should be more cautious when prescribing/recommending antibiotics. Buying antibiotics over the counter without any prescription is a common practice in Bangladesh. Many people have also the tendency of taking antibiotics for common diseases like fever or cold, which is not always necessary. We hope the government will take initiatives to make people aware of the harmful consequences of taking antibiotics unnecessarily.

Sharif Ahmed
Statistician, Department of Health, UK