36% sales of antibiotics in Mexico fall

• April 16, 2024

The consumption of antibiotics in Mexico it fell approximately 36% so far in 2010 and this was not due to a reduction in infection rate , which proves the thesis that Mexicans consumed antibiotics in an irrational way; However, in mid-November 2010, this fall was reduced by 17%, which is due to the presence of cold fronts that usually demand greater consumption of this class of drugs.

In the framework of the National Health Council (CNS) that met this weekend in Manzanillo, the Federal Commissioner for Protection against Health Risks (COFEPRIS), Miguel Ángel Toscano Velasco, presented the Surveillance Report on Compliance with the Antibiotics Agreement which demands prescription for the sale and dispensation of this type of medicines and it came into force on August 25.

On average 83% of pharmacies in Mexico are complying with the control of antibiotics with prescription , according to the method of direct observation and verification visits that were made to 10 thousand 683 pharmacies in 19 states of the country. In the remaining 13%, misinformation was detected about the requirements to be met.

The head of COFEPRIS indicated that what corresponds to the surveillance of prescriptions retained, a first sample of 326 prescriptions from the states of Aguascalientes , Guanajuato Y San Luis Potosi , of which 91 resulted with irregularities in filling them, among the following:

• They did not contain the professional doctor's certificate number (39 cases)
• Photocopy of the recipe was retained in place of the original (24 cases)
• Name, address and professional certificate of the doctor written by hand (14 cases)
• Recipe printed by computer (6 cases)
• Incomplete data from the doctor (3 cases)
• Physician data printed other than those written by hand (3 cases)
• Incomplete prescription (1 case)
• Does not correspond to recipe (1 case)

The most commonly used antibiotics in Mexico are: penicillin g, amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid, ceftriaxone, ampicillin, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, ciprofloxacin, cephalexin, azithromycin, oxytetracycline and clindamycin.