PENANG, 29 October 2013 - Researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (SPS) held a briefing session with 30 community leaders in the north-east district of Penang to spread the awareness of antibiotic resistance as one of its programmes in the antibiotic resistance campaign among local community at the 1Malaysia Makloom Community Hall, Sg. Pinang.

According to the leader of the research project, Associate Professor Dr Mohamed Azmi Ahmad Hassali, this programme is important as we want up-to-date pharmaceutical information to be delivered directly to the community who are also consumers of medicines.

The one-day programme was also attended by Dato’ Rashid Ismail, President of the Yayasan Bina Ilmu Pulau Pinang; S. Tanimalai who represented the Director of Department of Information of Penang; and Farook Sk. Mohd who delivered a speech on behalf the rest of the leaders.

According to Mohamed Azmi, who is also the Deputy Dean (Student Affairs and Networking) SPS, the results of the survey were discussed with emphasis on the public knowledge concerning the rational use of antibiotics resistance and antibiotics.

There was an experience-sharing session by SPS Research Officer, Muhammad Sharrieffuddin Mohd Jaki in relation to the conference that he attended in Cuenca, Ecuador, and together with the presentation of activities that have been implemented and the project progress made with partners and civil society organisations around the world.

He also explained the approaches used by organisations in other countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Ecuador and Nicaragua in disseminating information on the rational use of antibiotics and the dangers of antibiotic resistance in order to overcome this problem.

Mohamed Azmi added that the rest of 1Malaysia Community were very excited to participate in this project and following the success of this event, more activities will be organised in future. - Translation: Siti Faizah Abd Halim/Photos contribution: Muhammad Sharrieffuddin Mohd Jaki