Interview: “People Are Taking Drugs They Do Not Need”

To what extent is the situation of self-medication in the treatment of Covid-19 pandemic?
Over the past two years, since we started dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a huge rise in the self-medication against the illness. At all levels in society, people just take any treatment they suspect can treat the Coronavirus. There have been different treatment protocols. Some of these protocols are available online.

Different people are doing different things. People have found different ways to prevent and treat the virus. While there is a protocol that is validated by the Ministry of health, the majority of our people have been mixing these protocols with others that they found on social media and/or local treatment. There are many people who take the available antibiotics for treatment, alongside other local treatments.

What are the dangers of self-medication in this case?  
Self-medication comes with many dangers. People are taking drugs they do not need and in a quantity they do not know and even the quality might not match. The mixture of different drugs affects our organs.  Gastroenterologists who manage diseases of the digestive tract have seen an increase of diseases that are due to the mid to long term absorption of a mixture of drugs. They have noticed a sharp increase in the number of people who have ulcer and gastric pains. This is because of all the mixture people are taking in the name of Covid-19 treatment. Some of the drugs can antagonize with each other and cause a lot of harm to the health system of any person.

Another major problem is the wrong use of antibiotics in the Covid-19 treatment. The unnecessary use of antibiotics anytime someone is thinking he/she is suffering from Covid-19 can cause Antimicrobial drug resistance. Those antibiotics that are taken when they are not needed select bacteria that could resist those drugs and kill those that are sensitive to them. The challenge is that the resistant bact...