The government of Bangladesh will soon bring a law to ban sale of antibiotic medicines by drug stores without prescription, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque in Dhaka on Tuesday. He said those medicine shops who give antibiotic medicine to customers without proper prescription will lose their licence for running the shop.

The Minister said that misuse of antibiotics is a silent killer. Citing data, he said all over the world close to 15 lakh people lose their lives due to excessive and unnecessary consumption of antibiotic medicines.

Bangladesh is also witnessing the negative effects of the rise in the consumption of antibiotics on public health, said the minister.

Zahid Maleque pointed out that presence of antibiotics was detected in meat and fish also which is a matter of grave concern. He emphasized upon the need to create public awareness against the excessive and unnecessary use of antibiotics.