Newspaper review I

5 December 2008
Doctors want stricter curbs on antibiotics
The Straits Time, Part C – Home

About the article:
Rampant usage of antibiotics allows bacteria to become antibiotic-resistant, causing some drugs useless in fighting them. This results in more and more patients coming down with serious infections like methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. Therefore, the Ministry of Health should take an approach to combat the problem.

Thoughts:
Patients are always expected to be given antibiotics no matter what infections they have got. Thus, bacteria in their body became resistant to the antibiotic. This causes their immune system to weaken, as the antibiotic is unable to fight the bacteria.
In the article, it is stated that the Ministry of Health should tighten prescriptions of antibiotics by doctors. I think that other than that, the sale of antibiotics should be controlled. Anybody can go to any clinic to buy antibiotics. Also, if your doctor did not prescribe antibiotics to you, you should not ask for it. Antibiotics need not be used for viral infections like common cold or cough.

Jolene Chia.