Abstract
Background Majority of acute diarrhoeal diseases are self-limiting and do not require routine treatment. Treatment with empirical antimicrobials is recommended only for dysenteric and invasive bacterial diarrhoea. Irrational use of antibiotics in treatment of acute diarrhoea is common in clinical practice worldwide. This study was carried out to assess the pattern of antibiotic use for acute diarrhoeal diseases in Bishoftu General Hospital, East Shewa Ethiopia. Methods and Materials Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 1 to April 30, 2016. Data were collected retrospectively from patients treated for diarrhoeal diseases from January 2015 to December 2015 using structured questionnaires and entered into SPSS (IBM 20) and descriptive statistics was carried out. Results Among the 303 patients, 51.2% were males and 48.8% were females. Of them, 62% were children under five years. Two hundred sixty three (86.8%) patients received eight different types of antibiotics and cotrimoxazole (178 patients, 58.7%) was the most prescribed antibiotics, followed by ciprofloxacin (33, 10.9%) and amoxicillin (14, 4.6%). Based on the presence of blood in stools, 14.5% of cases were of invasive bacterial type. According to the recommendations of WHO, the rate of overuse of antibiotics was 72.3%. Conclusion This study revealed that there was high overuse of antibiotics for both adults and children under five with acute diarrhoea in Bishoftu General Hospital. And Cotrimoxazole was the most prescribed antibiotic.
Highlights
An antibiotic is a drug that kills or slows the growth of bacteria [1]
In Ethiopia, there are indications on the misuse of antibiotics by health-care providers, unskilled practitioners, and drug consumers. ese coupled with rapid spread of resistant bacteria and inadequate surveillance contributed to the problem [3, 4]
It is estimated that about 20% to 50% of all antibiotics use is inappropriate, resulting in increase of side effect, high cost, and high rate of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in community pathogens [11]. e most common inappropriate antibiotic use is for viral and self-limiting infection in the acute diarrhoea
Summary
Majority of acute diarrhoeal diseases are self-limiting and do not require routine treatment. Treatment with empirical antimicrobials is recommended only for dysenteric and invasive bacterial diarrhoea. Irrational use of antibiotics in treatment of acute diarrhoea is common in clinical practice worldwide. Is study was carried out to assess the pattern of antibiotic use for acute diarrhoeal diseases in Bishoftu General Hospital, East Shewa Ethiopia. Data were collected retrospectively from patients treated for diarrhoeal diseases from January 2015 to December 2015 using structured questionnaires and entered into SPSS (IBM 20) and descriptive statistics was carried out. Based on the presence of blood in stools, 14.5% of cases were of invasive bacterial type. Is study revealed that there was high overuse of antibiotics for both adults and children under five with acute diarrhoea in Bishoftu General Hospital.
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