Dhaka: The High Court on Thursday asked the government to take necessary steps to ban the sale of antibiotics without prescriptions of specialist physicians.

The bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil issued the order after hearing a writ petition filed by lawyer Syed Sayedul Haque Suman, reports the UNB.

It ordered the director general (DG) of the Directorate of Drug Administration to issue a circular to the deputy commissioners and the civil surgeons to this end.

A rule was also issued asking the authorities concerned why the sale of antibiotics without prescriptions would not be declared as illegal.

Suman filed the writ petition on Wednesday attaching reports published in different newspapers, including British daily ‘The Telegraph’.

According to the report, Professor Sayedur Rahman, chairman of the department of pharmacology at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, attributed 80 percent of deaths in the intensive care unit in 2018 to a bacterial or fungal infection that was resistant to antibiotics.

Suman, citing a WHO report, said each year, around 700,000 people around the world die due to antibiotic resistance.

He said pharmacies unnecessarily provide antibiotics to patients and due to their excessive use, antibiotics stop working after a certain time.

At one stage, germs like bacteria and fungi develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them, which is called antibiotic resistance.

A Poribesh Bachao Andolon (POBA) report said at least 55.7 percent residents of the capital have already developed antibiotic resistance due to high level of antibiotic intake through agricultural items, Suman added.