The Health Ministry will take stern action against selling antibiotics over-the-counter without a prescription from a qualified medical practitioner, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said.
"Using antibiotics unnecessarily should be discouraged.
Nearly 13 percent of health expenditure is on antibiotics, he said.
He was addressing the gathering after launching the National Policy on Antibiotic Resistance at the BMICH in Colombo recently.
Minister Senaratne said WHO had confirmed that antibiotic resistance has become a serious issue. Treating diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB), and malaria among others has become a problem with the issue.
Many developing countries including Sri Lanka have focussed on reducing the use of antibiotics.
Antibiotics resistance is a concern in a developing country like Sri Lanka as they are used to control non-communicable diseases. Sri Lanka has signed the Jaipur Declaration on reducing the use of antibiotics to cut down using antibiotics unnecessarily. The National Policy on Antibiotics has been drafted in this regard, he said.
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