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Handbook on antibiotics

DUBAI — Health practitioners, including pharmacists, working under the Department of Health and Medical Services (Dohms) will now be required to consult a handbook of guidelines before prescribing antibiotics.

The Department of Pharmaceutical Services at Dohms has issued the handbook of guidelines recently. It has to be followed by doctors and pharmacists in the hospitals and clinics under Dohms before they prescribe antibiotics to patients.

According to Dr Ali Al Sayed Hussain, director of the Department of Pharmaceutical Services at Dohms, “The Antimicrobial Drugs Guidebook will change the prescribing behaviour of doctors. This will also improve the quality of our services and will prove cost-effective in financial terms.”

The guidebook contains details like the causes for specific medical conditions, how to prescribe the right antimicrobial drug, in which cases, and what dose.

“It tells a doctor about the right usage of antimicrobial drugs. We always recommend the lowest dose for all antibiotics,” Dr Hassan added.

“Not all antimicrobial drugs can be prescribed for all patients. There are certain categories like children, pregnant or lactating women who should not be prescribed certain antibiotics. Kidney patients are not supposed to take high doses of some drugs. All these points are clearly written in the guidebook,” he explains.