COVID-19 and random prescription of antibiotics in Syria.

Dear editor,

Covid_19 is a virus from the coronavirus family that causes acute respiratory syndrome, which is characterized by fever, dyspnea, and headache, in addition to other less common symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, and muscle pain. The virus first appeared in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and quickly spread to become a global pandemic in the first quarter of 2020, when the World Health Organization declared a global emergency [1]. In this paper, we will focus on the situation of the Corona virus in Syria in particular, this country torn by war starting in 2011 and over a period of 10 years, where all state institutions and sectors were affected, including the health sector, which was negatively reflected during the Corona pandemic by not being able to contain this pandemic. Moreover, the difficult economic situation and the spread of poverty and starvation among a large proportion of the Syrian people have led to a great state of backwardness and health ignorance regarding means of prevention, protection, treatment from this virus. With regard to the treatment of the Corona virus in Syria, we have noticed the spread of the phenomenon of indiscriminate use of antibiotics by patients infected with Corona virus before attending the clinic or ambulance, where ignorance and lack of health education as a result of the factors mentioned above led to a lack of guidance and awareness of the dangers of indiscriminate use of antibiotics and the risks that it entails Such as increasing the bacterial resistance to antibiotics, as it produces new strains that are not affected by the existing antibiotics, and this is a big problem that puts scientists in a race to develop stronger and more effective antibiotics [2]. Unfortunately, because of misunderstanding, poverty, and civil war, basic recommendations for treating covid19 have been ignored thus far, specifically in some remote places. Syrians infected with covid19 are scared to die, therefore they go to pharmacies to get antibiotics as a medication to avoid hospitalization. This exacerbates the problem by weakening the body's immunity and increasing the risk of antibiotic-related problems in covid19 patients. We plan to make specific recommendations to establish strict instructions to prevent the random administering of antibiotics to covid-19 patients, as well as to make public awareness programs about how to deal with people infected with covid-19 by keeping them under medical supervision and prescribing an authorized treatment in conformance with United Nations directives.

Ethical approval

N\A.

Sources of funding

There is no any funding source.

Author contribution

Sarya Swed; contributed in writing letter and revising.

Hidar Alibrahim: contributed in writing letter.

Bisher Sawaf: contributed in reviewing the letter.

Consent

N/A.

Registration of research studies

Not applicable.

Guarantor

Sarya Swed.

Declaration of competing interest

All authors declare no conflict of interest.