Because it is not included in the title: In Pakistan.
Dr Fatima Mir, professor of paediatric medicine at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi, says our footage highlights weaknesses in infection control training in Pakistan. “We must warn our injectors: ‘You have become an active instrument for passing disease.’”
Our investigation suggests that unsafe practices are in part driven by systemic pressures including a reliance on, and cultural preference for, injections as treatment.
Pakistan has one of the highest rates of therapeutic injections in the world, many of them medically unnecessary. Members of the general public ask for them, including for their children, and doctors happily oblige, says Mir. “They should keep the threshold for injection practice very high. Only give injections for life-threatening illnesses. For mild to moderate illnesses, use oral medication.”
The fuck? Why would the medical staff oblige? Why not just say “no”? If the government is not giving the hospitals enough money, then why allow for so much waste to occur? But then again, they are reusing needles on children, which is spreading HIV, and do not care enough to stop doing so.
It all comes back to lack of education. If the parents and medical staff were aware of the risks involved, they would hopefully make more informed decisions.
I had a terrible ear infection as an adult once, honestly worst pain I can remember and I’ve broken a few bones. The doctor gave me an antibiotic shot to speed up the recovery, and it worked amazingly well.
A couple years later I got some kind of bronchial bacterial infection. They were just going to send me home with a script for antibiotics, but I asked for the shot and they gave it to me. The next day I felt drastically better. I still of course had to take a course of antibiotics, but the speed at which the shot worked was amazing.
So I totally understand asking for it when its appropriate for bacterial infections.
Of course doctors should not offer it if there is a shortage of medical equipment
The fuck? Why would the medical staff oblige? Why not just say “no”?
Fwiw US based providers have similar issues with prescriptions. Doctors report lower patient satisfaction scores for patients who don’t walk out with a prescription. It’s why antibiotic overuse is a thing.
It doesn’t surprise me one bit that doctors over-prescribe injectables in a country that sees them as a treatment.
Irs not only formal education but also just a kind of culture around medical practice.
In a lot of south east Asian countries there’s a real expectation that doctors have to give you medicine. If you go to the Dr with a cold, instead of being told to go home and get some rest, you’ll leave with a goodies bag with all the things: paracetamol, a branded pen, antacid, vitamins, a coffee mug, antihistamine, bubblegum tooth paste, expectorant, a mask, and yes: antibiotics.
Many patients particularly from rural backgrounds, have always experienced medicine as a blend of actual therapy and showmanship. If you get headaches then the treatment is paracetamol for the pain and cupping to remove the bad spirits.
This means real practitioners providing science based medicine really need to uphold the showmanship. Better to give a kid a vaccine they might not need in order to improve the perceived value of the healthcare they received.
I can also imagine situations where a hospital might receive 10,000 doses of a vaccine from an aid organisation but are expected to provide their own hardware.
Why not just give them a placebo then, rather than waste actual medicine that isn’t going to do anything?
If you give a hospital medicine they will use it.
“hey, kids! wanna know what my favorite part of the 80s was?”
Popples?
