Janet Ogundepo Citing the potential health implications, paediatricians have warned parents against giving their babies antibiotics without a prescription by qualified medical personnel. They noted that the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in babies was not only harmful but eventually made infections difficult to treat as the drug became resistant to infections, leading to higher costs of treatment, long hospital stays, and deaths. The paediatricians also warned parents against giving their babies antibiotics in an attempt to prevent infections, asserting that such practice was harmful.
In exclusive interviews with PUNCH Healthwise, the child experts and researchers on Antimicrobial Resistance, urged parents to take their babies to certified healthcare practitioners before giving them medications. The experts spoke in light of World AMR Awareness Week commemorated on November 18 to 24 every year. The theme for this year is, “Educate.
Advocate. Act now.” According to the World Health Organisation, WAAW is a global campaign that is celebrated annually to improve awareness and understanding of AMR and encourage best practices among the public, health practitioners and policymakers to reduce further emergence and spread of AMR.
Antimicrobial Resistance, AMR, occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat and further increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death. The WHO notes that antimic.