Editor,

RE: "Sensitise public on dangers of self-medication” (The New Times, May 17).

As much as I agree with the editorial on challenges that self-medication can cause to patients, I may call for going beyond this single factor and look at a broader perspective.

You can be prescribed a medicine as a patient and you fail to comply with the prescription. Take, for example, long term treatment, e.g. for TB and other diseases. Non-compliance to prescription requirements/guidance is the worst cause of drug resistance and even leads to multi-resistant TB, HIV/AIDS treatment failures and so on.So patient education here plays a key role in the ongoing menace of drug resistance.

John Patrick