'25pc patients in country prefer self-medication over consulting doctors'.

KARACHI -- Some 25 per cent patients across Pakistan prefer self-medication over consulting any doctor, increasing the risk of abuse of medicine and affecting the efficacy of antibiotics due to their overuse, medical experts and health professionals said on Thursday.

They added that millions of patients in the country did not consult any physician or healthcare expert after getting ill or developing any health problem and that led to several complex issues in the country's health system.

The experts urged physicians to adopt 'evidence-based medicines and interventions' for treatment of both communicable and non-communicable diseases.

'A large number of people in Pakistan, approximately around 25 per cent, take prescription medicine without consulting physician. The abuse of medicines, especially antibiotics, is very common in our society and it is affecting the efficacy of these medicines and gradually making them ineffective against many infectious diseases,' Prof Javed Akram, Vice Chancellor of the University of Health Sciences (UHS) Lahore, said while addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club.

Three-day conference on evidence-based medicine begins today

Another senior office-bearer of the PSIM Prof Aftab Mohsin said of the one billion injections given to patients in Pakistan, over 90 per cent were given unnecessarily and added that laws were needed to prevent the exploitation of patients in Pakistan.

Accompanied by senior most professor of medicine in Pakistan Prof Dr Eice Muhammad, secretary of Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine (PSIM) Dr Somia Iqtadar, Prof Aftab Mohsin, Prof Zaman Shaikh, Prof Dr Aziz-ur-Rehman, Dr Farhan Essa and others, Prof Javed Akram said they were holding a three-day annual conference of PSIM from Friday in Karachi to promote evidence-based medicine in the country.

Prof Akram maintained that the field pf medicine...

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