Self-medication poses great danger, expert warns Kenyans

When you have a headache you rush to chemist to buy painkillers. You have a stomach upset? Well, get some antacids. Have flu or runny nose? Get some capsules from the chemist. Your child is having some fever? Send someone to get fever medication. This paint a picture of how we self-medicate – trying to find a shortcut to treat ourselves without considering if it’s safe. The goal is to get rid of pain or at least to get going with your daily activities.

Self-medication dangers has not been unmasked in Kenya despite its detrimental effects posing
serious medical issue. Taking medication without any diagnosis or consulting a physician is a thorn in the flesh in healthcare. Anastacia Karia, Nairobi resident says many factors informs her decision to self-medicate including lack of sufficient funds to go to hospital, expensive medicine and limited time to seek medical attention. She explains that she opt to buy medicine ‘over the counter’ because it’s cheap and not time consuming.

“Our medication now days is expensive. So, I prefer going to the chemist medicine to buy
medicine instead of going to the hospital. In hospital, I can spend a lot of money. We are also
busy people and we don’t have time to go to the hospital,” she says.

Dr Lucas Nyabero, CEO Pharmaceuticals Society of Kenya says that medicines are always available thus Kenyans choose to self-medicate instead of going to see a doctor. He added that they have no time to go and see the doctor owing to tough economic times. However, he reiterated on importance of seeing the doctor before taking any medication.

“People self-medicate not because medicine is expensive but because it’s available. You can walk to a
pharmacy and buy medication. That makes you lazy because you don’t have to go and see a doctor for it. The reason you have to go and see a doctor is because they have been train to diagnose so that they can figure out what condition you’re in. Another factor is economic activity. When you go to line up the whole day to see a doctor for a cough you’ll loose a whole productive day. That’s a barrier for people going to see the doctor,” he says.

Abraham Too, a city resident says diagnosis is so expensive and due to high cost of living people will forgo it to buy food. He says he spends a minimum of Kh500 every time he goes for diagnosis but for him he can’t forgo it since he’s well conversant with the dangers that comes with taking wrong medication. “Currently I go for diagnosis before taking any medicine after realizing that wrong medication may result to other conditions. That is why I go for diagnosis. However, diagnosis is indeed expensive. When I go to the hospital they normally charge me a minimum of 500 and someone might not have food so automatically they will opt to buy medicine from the chemist rather than going for diagnosis,” Abraham says.

Google prescription

The culture of searching for medical information on the internet is so rampant hence fueling self-medication. Anastacia says she first googles her symptoms before going to seek medical care adding that she only go to the hospital her body can’t function otherwise the drugs from the chemist is her first stop when she’s sick. This is due to much time spent in hospitals as she awaits to be diagnosed. “We have to google our symptoms and know what you are suffering from. Afterwards I will go to the chemist buy medicine. I only go to the hospital when my body can’t function since we waste a lot of time in hospital, we are busy people,” she says.

Dr Nyabero warns on googling symptoms stating that google is a computer algorithm is based on people who have used google the most. He says it’s not Africans who have used it most hence it does not in line with what Kenyans. “People shouldn’t google their symptoms. That is a computer algorithm which is based on the most people who have used and those who’ve used it most are not Africans. So, it’s not in line with Kenyans. Using google is not asking questions. In most cases, you will assume that what you are reading is what you have which means you could be treating something totally different,” he warns.

Antimicrobial resistance

On November last year, Pharmacy and Poisons Board warned Kenyans against engaging in self-
medication and maintaining culture of purchasing medicines as prescribed by licensed healthcare profession to avoid falling prey to antimicrobial resistance which is a threat to public health globally. However, many Kenyans are not aware of the dangers of taking unprescribed medicine owing to lack of awareness and ignorance. Anastacia says she is not aware of any health hazards associated with self-medication. She recalls one occasion when she had decline to go to the hospital when she was sick but the medicine from the chemist failed to heal her. “Sometimes we are afraid to go to the hospital because we are afraid that we can be diagnosed with a certain disease. The fear of unknown makes us to go to the chemist. We buy those medicines with faith that you will be healed,” she says.

She continued, “sometime we don’t know the dangers but I am not afraid of it so long as I am feeling good and can do my daily activities. I am not afraid of any effects of self-medication. As long as you are happy then there is nothing to be worried about. There’s a time I took medication from the counter and it didn’t work. Finally, I had to go to the hospital despite the fact that I was not intending to. It was not a good experience.”

According to Dr Nyabero, antimicrobial resistance is the biggest hurdle in healthcare as it takes a lot of time to develop antibiotics. He warns that a continual use of antibiotics without prescription poses a great threat in healthcare since bacteria will develop resistance to available antibiotics. Additionally, resistant bacteria can be transmitted to other people.

“We have a big problem with anti-biotics because soon or later we might not have antibiotics to treat illnesses that we could treat for a long time because it takes a long time to develop antibiotics. Taking full dose is so important as it ensures all bacteria is killed. Failure to do so, the remaining bacteria will develop resistance and at the same time that bacteria can be transmitted,” he articulates. “Omeprazole, antibiotics, pain-killers and anxiety drugs are the most abused drugs,” he added.

Dependency and organ damage

With continual use of drugs without the recommendation from a physician, patients are likely
to develop other serious health conditions including suppression of serious illnesses like cancer
and dependency on medicines. That way, a person will not be able to lead normal life without
taking such drugs. Organ damage is also likely to occur when one uses medicine without any
knowledge about it as Dr Nyabero explains.

“Drugs don’t have brains, they will do what they do how they do it. So, using unprescribed medicine might cause dependency where a person will not function unless they use that medicine and the body requires it all time. Unprescribed medication could damage your organs because you are taking medication without knowing its side effects. It also suppresses diseases hence it progression and by the time you know it, it’s too late,” he explains

Many doctors are concentrated in cities and towns in the country. According to Dr Nyabero, huge percentage of doctors in five cities/towns (Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu, Mombasa and Eldoret) which causes shortage of prescribers in rural areas. “Of all doctors we have in the country, 85 percent are in five cities. They share the 15-20 percent of the doctors. That is the shortage we have for prescribers,” he said.

Creating awareness

Creating awareness on the dangers of self-medication will reduce high cost of healthcare as Dr Nyabero says that without it, the government will spend much money in dealing with its effects. He added that if the country had laws which strictly require patients to see the doctor before taking medicine, then self-medication will be a thing of the past. “The government has to do awareness because if not, they will have to pay a lot more money in healthcare. If we don’t curb this we will have more issues. Also, if we had laws which says anybody who’s getting medication has to have a prescription from the physician who’s managing it then people will find time to go and see the doctor,” he says.