GENEVA, Switzerland — The Ministry of Health has promised to accelerate a National Action Plan to curtail some of the challenges being faced with the indiscriminate or inappropriate use of antibiotics in the health, agriculture and other sectors. 

The plan, which will be completed by May this year, will also address the unregulated sale of these drugs.

 This was revealed by the Jamaican contingent at the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) 140th Executive Board Session on the Antimicrobial Resistance Intervention agenda item. Health Minister, Dr Christopher Tufton heads the Jamaican team in Geneva, Switzerland.

Speaking on behalf of the Health Ministry, Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Winston De La Haye presented to the WHO Executive Board results of a 2014/2015 Ministry of Health/University of the West Indies research on the knowledge, attitude and practices of medical doctors and the public with regard to antibiotic resistance. 

The finding revealed that only seven per cent of physicians took cultures in cases of suspected infections prior to prescribing antibiotics and 15 per cent did not perceive antibiotic resistance to be a problem. Among the members of the public surveyed, 50 per cent thought that the same antibiotics could work for all infections and the majority thought it was appropriate to share antibiotics.