The nursing officer at the Kiambu District Hospital has asked residents in the region to stop self medication and buying over-the-counter drugs without the doctor’s prescription.
Teresia Mbua says such acts make patients become resistant to drugs.
Speaking in her office on Thursday, Mbua regretted that most patients were self prescribing drugs before carrying out tests to determine what they are ailing from.
“Seek medication from qualified doctors who will recommend tests before treatment,” she advised.
She warned those with the habit of self- prescribing drugs that they risked buying drugs that might not treat the disease they purport to be suffering from.
The officer also discouraged pharmacists against selling half dose drugs to patients for lack of money to buy a full dose as prescribed by the doctors.
She further disclosed that the county government was using community health workers in combating malaria and also in assisting in the campaign against malaria.
She revealed that the country aims at eliminating malaria by 2018 and called for cooperation from all health stakeholders.