September 3: The Department of Drug Administration (DDA) has directed all stakeholders to put a red line on the label of antibiotics.    
DDA Director General Narayan Prasad Dhakal said the directive to mark the label of antibiotics with red lines has been issued so that the consumers will not take these drugs without the doctor’s prescription.    
"The consumers should take the medicines with red lines on their label only on the recommendation of the doctor. We have conducted a campaign for putting red lines on the label of antibiotics so that people will not take such medicines at their will," he said, adding that people will be warned not to take medicines having red lines on their label in careless manner.”
The DDA Director General reiterated that the campaign is also for informing the consumers that the medicine with red lines on their label is antibiotic.    
The DDA has directed the pharmaceutical industries and drugs importers to mandatorily print red lines on the label of antibiotics once the current stock is finished. It has also instructed the manufacturers and importers to use the red marks on antibiotics to be manufactured six months after this decision was made.    
It is stated that the provision of marking the label of antibiotics with red lines has been enforced so that the medicine users and non-medical health care staff, among others can easily identify the antibiotics and their use. This provision is in line with the international practice aimed at minimizing the use of antibiotics because of the resistance of infection due to misuse of such medicines.    
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