The High Court (HC) has ordered the government to take necessary steps to ensure that drug stores do not sell any kind of antibiotics without the doctor’s prescription.

It also ordered the Directorate of Drug Administration to issue a circular within two days instructing deputy commissioner and the civil surgeon in districts to take necessary measures.

After hearing a public litigation interest plea on Thursday (Apr 25), the bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil also issued a rule asking why the sales of antibiotics without prescriptions will not be declared illegal.

The secretary to health and public administration ministries, chief of the Directorate of Health are among the concerned government officials ordered to respond to the rule.

On Apr 22, British daily The Telegraph published an article ‘Superbugs linked to eight out of ten deaths in Bangladesh ICUs.’

The report said that superbugs could be responsible for up to 80 percent death in intensive care units (ICU).

The petition also cited a World Health Organisation (WHO) report that said the body becoming antibiotic resistant, known as antimicrobial resistance (AMR) leads to the death of 700,000 people all over the world. The number might rise to 10 million by 2050.

“Bangladesh is in a risky state with the extreme use of antibiotics in poultry feed, fishes and agriculture,” the petition read.

The petition added that half the amount of antibiotics use in the country is in the agriculture sector, hence it’s easy for the microbes to enter the human body through food.

It said that the medicine guideline had failed to make people conscious of the consequences of AMR and the state should take necessary steps to prevent people from walking to their own death.