The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Treating livestock with human medicine is now known to increase resistance to antibiotics faster than expected in Uganda, medics have warned.
Medical and environmental health practitioners say the practice is tipping the scale of resistance towards epidemic proportions in the near future unless stopped, slowed down, controlled or reversed through regulations and public sensitization.
Dr. Freddie Bwanga, the Director of Makerere College of Health Sciences, says the practice is going to introduce a situation where humans are never cured of antibiotics unless arrested.
For instance, Dr. Bwanga says the bacteria responsible for urinary tract infections – E Coli is no longer killed by Penicillin, the most widely available drug in the market due to abuse and wrong prescription of the drug to patients.
He says the bacteria have also developed resistance to second line treatment, exponentially pushing up the cost of treatment in the country.
According to Dr. Bwanga, recent clinical and laboratory studies conducted at the College of Health Sciences found that up to 40 percent of ulcer and gonorrhea causing bacteria have developed resistance to the commonly available Ciprofloxazine treatment in Ugandan pharmacies.
Dr. Juliet Sentumbwe, the acting Commissioner Livestock Production in the Agriculture Ministry, says another front where bacteria is fast developing resistance to antimicrobial treatment is the interface between animals and humans.
Dr. Sentumbwe explains that the practice of treating animals with human medicine is worsening the problem of poor adherence to veterinary drug withdrawal periods as traces of those drugs are consumed in livestock markets.
Dr. Sentumbwe urged farmers to stop misusing veterinary drugs in the treatment of their animals to prevent business losses associated with tick resistance to antibiotics.
There has been reports from various parts of the country implicating farmers for using antiretroviral drugs in fattening livestock such as pigs and chicken while some give drugs meant for treating neglected tropical diseases to livestock with diarrhea against intestinal worms.
Of major concern to the medics are the misuse and wrong prescriptions of cheaply available antibiotics by patients seeking treatment in the country. They want government to reprimand pharmacies dispensing antibiotics to patients without prescriptions from physicians over the counters.
Speaking at the annual Science Conference taking place at Hotel Africana in Kampala on Wednesday, Dr. Joyce Moriku Kaducu, the State Minister for Primary Health Care, said the rate at which patients are developing resistance to antibiotics is alarming to both government and communities.
Doctors have committed to a return to adherence to professional medical standards, ethics and practice of prescribing generic drugs known to be effective in treating bacterial infections.
Dr. Kaducu says the Ministry of Health will strictly enforce compliance to the laid down policies to prevent a looming health epidemic striking the country.
She says in addition to sensitizing communities, medical training institutions have agreed to intensify orientation of health professionals during training to solve the looming crisis.
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