The culprits of antibiotic-resistance are that sales of drug without doctors’ supervision and rampant overuse. Worse, anyone can buy medicine including antibiotics from pharmacies easily for self-medication without physicians’ prescription. Within the past few years, the number of antibiotics sold in the community in Vietnam has doubled; 80 percent of that was sold to city dwellers in big cities while the rate in rural districts up to 90 percent. Rampant misuse of antibiotics are also sen in farms and agriculture contributing to crisis of antibiotics overuse to human. Therefore, Deputy Health Minister Tran Van Thuan said that the health sector and related state agencies should work closely and determinedly to stop misuse of antibiotics at hospitals, farms and households. The Ministry will soon issue guidelines on management of antibiotics as well as re-check the number of antibiotic-resistant infections and consumption of the drug to adopt policies to tackle antimicrobial resistance, he said.

By Nguyen Quoc – Translated by Uyen Phuong