Dhaka, April 24 – A writ petition was filed with the High Court Wednesday seeking its directive on the authorities concerned to make mandatory a doctor’s prescription for the purchase of antibiotics from pharmacies.
Barrister Sayedul Haque Suman, a Supreme Court lawyer, filed the petition with the related as public interest litigation seeking its directive to restrict the sales of antibiotics at pharmacies without a physician’s prescription.
The petition also sought HC rule upon the government to explain why the sale of antibiotics without doctor’s prescription should not be declared illegal.
Health secretary, public administration secretary, director general of the department of health services and deputy commissioners of all 64 districts have been made respondents.
The HC bench comprising Justice Sheikh Hasan Arif and Justice Rajik Al Jalil is likely to hold a hearing on the petition today, Barrister Sumon said.
In the petition, the petitioner said that on April 22 British newspaper The Telegraph published a report with the headline “Superbugs linked to eight out of 10 deaths in Bangladeshi ICUs”.
In the report, it was mentioned that a senior doctor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University said that antimicrobial resistance superbug could be responsible for up to 80 per cent deaths in the country’s biggest intensive care units.
Professor Sayedur Rahman, chairman of the Department of Pharmacology, at the BSMMU, told The Telegraph that out of approximately 900 patients admitted to the unit in 2018, 400 died.
And out of those deaths, around 80 percent were attributed to a bacterial or fungal infection that was resistant to antibiotics, said doctor Sayedur Rahman.
Barrister Suman annexed the Telegraph report with the writ petition seeking necessary orders. – Staff Reporter
