According to data from the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC), Cyprus is among the European countries with the highest consumption of antibiotic drugs and as a result among the countries with the highest rates of antimicrobial resistance.
The Epidemiological Surveillance and Control of Infectious Diseases Unit of the Ministry of Health, recognizing the seriousness of the problem, plans and implements actions aimed at the rational use of antibiotics in medicine and the treatment of antimicrobial resistance.
These actions include the development of a surveillance programme for the prescription of antibiotics in outpatient health care in collaboration with the Health Insurance Organisation. As part of this programme, a questionnaire has been introduced from Tuesday 2 Mayn order to be completed by the attending physicians when prescribing antibiotics via the GHS computer system. The questionnaire includes a question on the clinical indication for prescribing the antibiotic. The Ministry of Health's ultimate goal is to promote the prescription of antibiotics only when indicated (i.e. in the case of bacterial and not viral infections) but also to promote the prescription of antibiotics that are appropriate for the patient's infection.
The Ministry of Health would like to take this opportunity to remind that the rational use of antibiotics and safeguarding the effectiveness of these valuable medicines is the responsibility of all of us (health professionals and the public). We should remember that antibiotics should only be taken on the prescription of a doctor who has examined us. We do not save antibiotics for later use and we do not use antibiotics left over from previous treatments. Finally, we do not give others leftover antibiotics.
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