What is red labelling of antibiotic packaging?
The private medicine shops are one of the largest providers of medicines to the consumers in Bangladesh. Some prescription-only medicines are often sold without prescriptions. In November-December 2021, the DGDA conducted a baseline survey in collaboration with WHO Bangladesh and Fleming Fund. The survey investigated the level of awareness of the pharmacy professionals, who are engaged in medicine dispensing, about antimicrobials, antimicrobial resistance, and their impacts on self-medication. Conducted in 8 divisions of Bangladesh among 427 medicine shops, the survey showed 67.3% of respondents have insufficient knowledge about antibiotics and prohibition of dispensing of antibiotics without prescriptions from registered physicians. In response, the DGDA enforced a directive for the pharmaceutical manufacturers to use red-labelled warning messages on the strips and packages of antibiotics before marketing. The message says “Antibiotic, do not use without a prescription of registered physician.” This step is one of the several measures of the Government to promote the rational use of antibiotics.
BHB’s survey on the red labelling of antibiotic packaging
The MSH’s Better Health in Bangladesh (BHB) project launched a short online survey on 29 February 2024, as part of the project’s Facebook campaign on antibiotic resistance. The survey gathered feedback from the medicine dispensers on this government directive. Data were collected for two weeks till 14 March 2024. The number of respondents was 302. The results show that this initiative is working.
Key results
- 8% medicine dispensers opine that this DGDA initiative is gradually making positive changes in the rational use of antibiotics in Bangladesh
- 7% of the respondents are aware of the antibiotic red-labeling directive of DGDA
- In 97.4% of the medicine shops, red-labeled antibiotics were available for dispensing.
- 4% medicine dispensers advise their clients not to use antibiotics without a prescription
Let’s together fight AMR
