Antibiotic Stewardship in Community Pharmacies: A Scoping Review.

Shazia Jamshed,Saira Azhar,Siti Bux,Siti Shamsudin,Akshaya Bhagavathula,Mohamed Hassali,Abdul Jamaluddin,Fadzlan Padzil

doi:10.3390/pharmacy6030092

Abstract

The increase in antibiotic resistance has frequently been linked to unrestrained antibiotic dispensing. This review was conducted to mainly assess the perception and attitudes of community pharmacists towards antibiotic dispensing. This scoping review was performed between June 2016 and September 2016 to identify published studies related to the perception and attitudes of community pharmacists towards antibiotic dispensing. The combination of terms such as ‘antibiotic dispensing’, ‘antimicrobial resistance’, ‘community pharmacy’, and ‘community pharmacists’ were searched in electronic databases such as PubMed, ProQuest, Google Scholar, and Science Direct. Only published articles within the last 12 years were included. A total of 13 studies were identified. In general, community pharmacists have good awareness and knowledge of antibiotic dispensing. However, the majority of them are still selling antibiotics to their customers and/or patients for unjustified reasons. The community pharmacists seem well aware of the antimicrobial resistance crisis and considered it a significant health issue. However, many embraced the concept that dispensing antibiotics without medical prescription (DAwMP) can be one of the key features in the dissemination of multidrug resistant bacteria.

Highlights

Increased prevalence of drug-resistant bacteria leads to an upsurge in morbidity and mortality from bacterial infections [1]
As this review mainly focused on the perceptions and attitudes towards antibiotics dispensing among community pharmacists, the research question was “What are the opinions and attitudes of community pharmacists on antibiotic sales and does it affect the antibiotic resistance?”
A total of 507 references were identified from the electronic searches of four databases after duplicates were removed

Summary

Introduction

Increased prevalence of drug-resistant bacteria leads to an upsurge in morbidity and mortality from bacterial infections [1]. Infection thrives due to drug-resistant bacteria and claims thousands of lives each year [2]. A few commonly-encountered bacterial strains that develop resistance to antimicrobials are Escherichia coli (E. coli), Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus pneumonia, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) [3]. One of the key issues in tuberculosis (TB) treatment is drug resistance. The statistics on anti-TB drug resistance highlighted 123,000 patients with MDR-TB or rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (RR-TB) and around three-fourths were located in India, South Africa, China, and European regions [4].

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion