Health director-general Datuk Seri Noor Hisham Abdullah said it was imperative for patients or individuals to equip themselves with knowledge and understanding of their respective ailments and medication before proceeding to self-medicate.
He noted that some medications could result in complications or side-effects which could lead to organ failure in the long run.
“Even if you have basic understanding of the disease in question, there must be advice or supervision from doctors. If you do it blindly without properly understanding the disease and the medications involved, it can be very dangerous,” he said in a recent interview.
Noor Hisham cautioned that self-administering what might appear to look like simple medication may result in serious complications such as brain failure.
The director-general noted that self-medication was not similar to buying prescribed medicines from doctors or pharmacies.
“Self-medication means no consultation at all, you just order from the internet and take the medicine. You can end up with liver failure, kidney failure and so on,” he said.
He said the worst scenario is to find out that the affected person was in such a serious predicament, at a much later stage.
— BERNAMA
