HEALTH Minister Ummy Mwalimu has appeal to Tanzanians to ensure proper use of drugs to avoid antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and priority zoonotic diseases (PZDs).

“Tanzanians can do a few things to deal with AMR which includes properly following advice of health professionals, follow instructions from veterinary, agricultural experts and on top of that use correct drugs for livestock, farms and washing hands with clean water with soap and maintaining the cleanliness of our environment,” said Mwalimu.

She was speaking in Dodoma over the weekend when she met with the Ambassador of the ‘Holela-Holela Itakukosti’ (Recklessness Will Cost You) campaign nicknamed ‘KIDO’.

Mwalimu said that AMR is a serious challenge and its effects are diseases recurring and taking time to recover and the spread of pathogens resistant to drugs, disability and even death.

She added: “There are economic effects such as spending a lot of money on medical treatment and thus leads to reducing personal time of managing daily activities, family and loss of income”.

The campaign which focuses on antimicrobial resistance and zoonotic diseases works at local level to develop community awareness and preventive action and is being coordinated by the Office of the Prime Minister in collaboration with Ministries of Health, Livestock and Office of the Vice President (Union and Environment) with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through Breakthrough ACTION project.