The US The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Commissioner - Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, while launching Safe Use Initiative for reducing unnecessary injuries, the result of avoidable medication errors said, far too many people suffered due to medication misuse, errors and other problems, all preventable in the first place.

According to her, each year around 4-million people visited hospitals, doctors offices and health care clinics for both intentional and unintentional misuse or medication overdose, with over
100,000 hospitalised, half of which could have been prevented. Prescription and over-the-counter drug interactions were also seen to be the biggest problems.

The agency has released some new guidelines for pharmaceutical firms making or distributing over-the-counter medications that come with droppers, spoons or cups for dose delivery, to ensure safer use.

Dr. Janet Woodcock, Director of FDA's Centre for Drug Evaluation and Researchsays, the new drug dosage guidance document is an important example of ensuring safer medication use, as many accidental overdoses are the result of being confused about the exact amount of medication to be taken. Better measuring devices will be helpful for ensuring safe and effective doses for patients, especially children.

Working with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Hamburg said FDA estimates for the number of people dying from avoidable medication errors is very large.

FDA's co-ordinated efforts, including working with doctors, nurses, patient groups and others for identifying medicines linked to preventable complications and developing strategies for preventing them, will reduce unnecessary complications from misuse, dosing errors, drug interactions or abuse.