Srinagar: Asserting that no people should not resort to self-medication, the health experts said patients should not take azithromycin on their own for respiratory ailments as it could have negative fall outs on health in the longer run.

“Have some mercy on Azithromycin,” Dr Masood Rashid, executive member of the Doctors Association of Kashmir (DAK) said.

“Say no to self medication…Say no to quackery…Azithromycin a macrolide bacteriostatic antibiotic is most commonly used by people for self-medication to treat respiratory infection’s…Almost every chemist prescribes three tablet’s to every patient with running nose (Zukaam)…Earlier due to misuse of Erythromycin which is an another macrolide antibiotic finally became useless… Azithromycin in Typhoid and Atypical Pneumoniae is lifesaving at times… Kindly avoid self-medication… Finally drug resistance kills…”.