Logo of Phnom Penh Post newspaper Phnom Penh Post - Antibiotics prescribed ‘blindly’, doctors admit

Antibiotics prescribed ‘blindly’, doctors admit

A woman packs individual pills including antibiotics into medication packages at a pharmacy in Phnom Penh earlier this year.
A woman packs individual pills including antibiotics into medication packages at a pharmacy in Phnom Penh earlier this year. Pha Lina

Antibiotics prescribed ‘blindly’, doctors admit

Cambodian physicians, by their own admission, routinely prescribe antibiotics “inappropriately” based on habit and poor hygiene rather than evidence of an infection, a new study has found.

The article, published by peer-reviewed science site BioMed Central last week, included research gleaned from focus group discussions with 103 Cambodian physicians, and revealed that “antibiotics prescribing occurred in the absence of microbiology evidence of infection”.

“Every day, doctors are not performing appropriately. We have made lots of mistakes with our antibiotic prescribing,” one doctor is quoted as saying in the report.

“Nowadays, we prescribe antibiotics blindly,” another added.

Worryingly, many doctors prescribed antibiotics “excessively” as a “preventative” measure, fearing poor hygiene in hospital rooms would result in an infection.

“I’m always afraid, because everything is not clean and the patients are not hygienic, so we give antibiotics right away,” one doctor admitted.

Further, many doctors had difficulty differentiating bacterial from viral infections – which cannot be cured by antibiotics – and a perception that patients demanded “stronger” or “quality” medicine led them to prescribe unnecessary antibiotics.

The data – collected over five months up until February 2014 – found that lengthy and unreliable tests, combined with a patient’s financial constraint, saw some physicians not using microbiology services, even when they were available.

But Dr Sok Srun, director of the department of hospital services at the Ministry of Health, denied the study’s findings and said Cambodian doctors “apply the rational use of medicine”.

“We are implementing monitoring, training and planning strategies in each referral hospital to reduce unnecessary prescription of medication, such as antibiotics, to improve patient safety,” he said. “Currently, we are updating the infection prevention and control guideline, [as] this guideline has been implemented since 2010.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), antibiotics have increasingly lost their effectiveness globally due to resistance, which could lead to more than 5 million deaths per year in the Asia Pacific region by 2050.

“Like other countries in the region, Cambodia is witnessing a growing threat of antimicrobial resistance, brought about by the excessive and irrational use of antibiotics at all levels of the food and livestock production, in the health care system and by the general public,” WHO spokesperson Vicky Houssiere said in a statement yesterday.

At the recent launch of the Antibiotic Awareness Week, WHO representative Dr Yungo Liu said the Kingdom had developed a policy and action plan to combat resistance, and called for “strict prescribing and dispensing practices”.

MOST VIEWED

  • Wing Bank opens new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004

    Wing Bank celebrates first anniversary as commercial bank with launch of brand-new branch. One year since officially launching with a commercial banking licence, Wing Bank on March 14 launched a new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004. The launch was presided over by

  • Girl from Stung Meanchey dump now college grad living in Australia

    After finishing her foundational studies at Trinity College and earning a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Melbourne in 2022, Ron Sophy, a girl who once lived at the Stung Meanchey garbage dump and scavenged for things to sell, is now working at a private

  • Ministry using ChatGPT AI to ‘ease workload’; Khmer version planned

    The Digital Government Committee is planning to make a Khmer language version of popular artificial intelligence (AI) technology ChatGPT available to the public in the near future, following extensive testing. On March 9, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications revealed that it has been using the

  • Wat Phnom hornbills attract tourists, locals

    Thanks to the arrival of a friendly flock of great hornbills, Hour Rithy, a former aviculturist – or raiser of birds – in Kratie province turned Phnom Penh tuk tuk driver, has seen a partial return to his former profession. He has become something of a guide

  • PM urges end to ‘baseless’ international Ream base accusations

    Prime Minister Hun Sen urges an end to “baseless” foreign accusations surrounding the development of the Kingdom’s Ream Naval Base, as the US has consistently suggested that the base is being expanded to accommodate a Chinese military presence. Hun Sen renewed his calls while

  • Almost 9K tourists see equinox sunrise at Angkor Wat

    Nearly 9,000 visitors – including 2,226 international tourists – gathered at Angkor Wat on March 21 to view the spring equinox sunrise, according to a senior official of the Siem Reap provinical tourism department. Ngov Seng Kak, director of the department, said a total of 8,726 people visited Angkor Wat to