Alexandru Rafila launches an urgent call with last-minute measures for all Romanians throughout the country, and this is because the official decisions that were taken by the authorities should bring more antivirals to pharmacies in the next period, the Minister of Health asking the pharmacies to stop providing antibiotics to Romanians without medical prescription.
Alexandru Rafila asks Romanians to use antibiotics only with a medical prescription at the moment, and to go to the doctor to get a prescription for antiviral treatment for the flu, or any other respiratory virus, avoiding antibiotics, which are only used to treat bacteria.
"We have to provide medicines, but they must be issued exclusively on prescription if we are talking about antivirals and antibiotics. We reiterate to pharmacies to dispense only on prescription. The purpose is to treat, not to store such drugs and their use outside the prescription can be dangerous or even contraindicated, especially if we are talking about antibiotics in the case of viral infections.
Antibiotics are not used to reduce fever or treat viral infections, they are only given for bacterial infections if this is noted by the doctor. A hospital's stocks are the responsibility of that hospital's management, the Ministry of Health cannot purchase drugs. Anyone who has a cold should avoid coming back to the community until the symptoms disappear.
The most important thing is to be isolated, not to pass on the respiratory infection. My colleagues recommended that antibiotics should not be used in viral infections and that patients should present to emergency departments in moderate and severe cases. Those with mild forms should go to family doctors, not to crowd emergency rooms.
I know of five or six large distributors who picked up large quantities of Oseltamivir just to distribute to pharmacies during this period. Compared to December, the amounts of Oseltamivir have increased 10 times, the amounts that are distributed in pharmacies, so a very large amount. I don't think we will have problems in the next period, they will be available to those who need them.
In the week of December 19 – 25, 2022, 2.685 cases of clinical influenza were reported nationally, compared to 1.644 cases recorded in the previous week (December 12 – 18) and 1.002 cases in the range of December 5 – 11. To date, no confirmed deaths from the flu virus have been reported. Since the beginning of the season, 208 laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza have been reported. On the other hand, until December 25, 1.417.836 people from risk groups were vaccinated against influenza, with vaccine distributed by the Ministry of Health."
