World Antibiotics Awareness Week

The rate of antibiotic abuse is unfortunately high in the country, said Dr Rasoul Dinarvand, head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). “Antibiotic misuse can make medicines ineffective leading to infections to persist in the body and increase the risk of spread to others,” Alef News Agency quoted him as saying. A study that monitored prescription patterns in 2012 evaluated 600 prescriptions at Tehran University of Medical Sciences’ hospitals. It indicated that 42% of all prescribed antibiotics were unnecessary. The World Antibiotics Awareness Week (November 14-20) aims to increase awareness of global antibiotic resistance and to encourage best practices so as to prevent antimicrobial resistance and development of microorganisms referred to as “superbugs”.