Press meeting organized on the occasion of the World Antibiotic Awareness Week took place with the participation of Deputy Minister of Health Prof. Dr. Emine Alp Meşe.
The week of 13-19 November is accepted as “World Antibiotic Awareness Week” to raise global awareness about unnecessary use of antibiotics. The events in Turkey ended with the press meeting attended by Prof. Dr. Alp Meşe.
In her speech, Deputy Minister underlined that unnecessary antibiotic consumption and antibiotic resistance cause a serious public health in threat in Turkey as the rest of the world. All countries are increasingly involved in awareness-raising events and action plans to settle this crucial problem, and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared this week as “World Antibiotic Awareness Week”.
Prof. Dr. Alp Meşe further added that discovery and use of antibiotics made contributions to life quality and life expectancy of people but they should be used rationally. “Antibiotics are ineffective in viral cases and above all they may cause various damages in human body especially in children and elderly people. They may cause hearing loss, allergy and even kidney failure. Therefore, physicians must think twice while prescribing antibiotics.”
“Antibiotics are tracked over the prescription information system”
Deputy Minister also pointed out establishment of Provincial Coordination Units for Rational Use of Medicines in 81 provinces of Turkey and ongoing training activities for physicians, pharmacist, allied healthcare staff, patients and relatives of the patients.
Concerning tracking of the antibiotic prescriptions over the prescription information system, Prof. Alp Meşe stated that “Prescriptions of the family physicians have been analyzed to find out the ratio of those including antibiotics. Based on the result of these analyses, we organize trainings for the physicians who prescribe antibiotics over the country average.”
President of Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency Hakkı Gürsöz, WHO Turkey Representative Pavel Ursu, Director-General of Public Health Hüseyin İlter, Director-General of Public Hospitals Rahmi Kılıç, Director General of Health Services Prof. Dr. Ahmet Tekin, Director General of Health Promotion Ümran Benli, Director-General of Food Control Muharrem Selçuk, Prof. Dr. Serhat Ünal, Prof. Dr. Ateş Kara, Prof. Dr. Alpay Azap and Prof. Dr. Canan Ağalar also attended the press meeting.
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