Antibiotics in Greece will only be given by doctor’s prescription from now on, in order to stop reckless use, announced General Secretary of Public Health Yiannis Baskozos.
According to an Athens Macedonian News Agency report, Baskozos said the new measure will put an end to the abuse of antibiotics by Greeks.
“We will take measures to ensure that antibiotics are given only on prescription, and in such a way that the prescription will be kept by the pharmacist for a while so that they can control where the antibiotics are given,” the general secretary of public health said.
“This inexplicable use of antibiotics can not continue, because it leads to resistance of microorganisms, and ultimately leads to infections that could have been cured much easier,” Baskozos continued.
Commenting on the fact that Greece is among the European countries with the highest levels of microbial resistance, Baskozos said:
“We will take very specific measures against microbial resistance. We will activate the hospital infection committees, prepare the national action plan for antimicrobial resistance, prepare interministerial cooperation. It is also a question of the Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of the Environment, because, unfortunately the inexplicable use of antibiotics in animals and the passing of these antibiotics to the environment, to the water and to the foods we eat affects us.”
The general secretary of public health said that the national health system needs to be upgraded. “Greece’s healthcare system is very privatized, with a great part of the payments coming from the people’s pockets and with a lack of a fundamentally organized primary care system.”
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