KARACHI: Some 25 per cent patients across Pakistan prefer self-medication over consulting any doctor, increasing the risk of abuse of medicine and affecting the efficacy of antibiotics due to their overuse, medical experts and health professionals said on Thursday.

They added that millions of patients in the country did not consult any physician or healthcare expert after getting ill or developing any health problem and that led to several complex issues in the country’s health system.

The experts urged physicians to adopt ‘evidence-based medicines and interventions’ for treatment of both communicable and non-communicable diseases.

“A large number of people in Pakistan, approximately around 25 per cent, take prescription medicine without consulting physician. The abuse of medicines, especially antibiotics, is very common in our society and it is affecting the efficacy of these medicines and gradually making them ineffective against many infectious diseases,” Prof Javed Akram, Vice Chancellor of the University of Health Sciences (UHS) Lahore, said while addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club.

Three-day conference on evidence-based medicine begins today

Another senior office-bearer of the PSIM Prof Aftab Mohsin said of the one billion injections given to patients in Pakistan, over 90 per cent were given unnecessarily and added that laws were needed to prevent the exploitation of patients in Pakistan.

Accompanied by senior most professor of medicine in Pakistan Prof Dr Eice Muhammad, secretary of Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine (PSIM) Dr Somia Iqtadar, Prof Aftab Mohsin, Prof Zaman Shaikh, Prof Dr Aziz-ur-Rehman, Dr Farhan Essa and others, Prof Javed Akram said they were holding a three-day annual conference of PSIM from Friday in Karachi to promote evidence-based medicine in the country.

Prof Akram maintained that the field pf medicine was rapidly evolving in the world and based on new research and studies, new therapies and interventions were emerging, but unfortunately, many physicians were not aware of these advancements in the field of medical science, especially in the area of medicine.

“In a country where every second adult is hypertensive [having high blood pressure], 25 per cent population is diabetic and over 40 per cent children are either obese or overweight, it is imperative that evidence-based medicines and interventions are adopted and prescribed to patients to lower disease burden on society,” he said.

He informed that the 3rd annual conference of the PSIM on the theme of ‘Adopting Evidence-Based Medicine’ was commencing on Friday in Karachi, which would continue till Sunday, during which 92 scientific sessions would be held and latest research in the field of communicable ad non-communicable diseases would be presented.

“We are also going to launch the Evidence-based Medicine Journal and an App to search an appropriate treatment, intervention and medicine to help physicians prescribe evidence-based medicines for their patients,” Prof Akram added.

Responding to a query, he said although Pakistani pharmaceutical industry was largely a ‘packaging industry’ instead of a manufacturing industry, still it was providing quality medicines on affordable rates to people and added that some of the sessions at their conference were aimed at teaching medical ethics to physicians and healthcare professionals.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2022