Evaluation of antibiotics use in the treatment of upper respiratory tract infection in Bedele District Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) are acute febrile illnesses involving the nose, paranasal sinuses, pharynx, larynx and upper trachea. The causative organisms in majority of the cases are viruses. Antibiotics are not needed in these circumstances; however the treatment of URTIs has become the major areas of antibiotics abuse globally. OBJECTIVE: To assess antibiotic prescription pattern for upper respiratory tract infection in Bedele District Hospital. Method: An institution based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted between February 15 to March 30/2015 using a structured data abstraction checklist. The necessary information was recorded from patients’ medical records seen in the hospital by the year 2014. The collected data was cleaned and analyzed using SPSS version 16. Result: Prevalence of antibiotics prescription in the management of URTIs in the hospital was 79.1%. Majority of the antibiotics prescribed were the Penicillin 246 (88.8 %). Amoxicillin was prescribed for 197 (71.1 %) cases. Among the 277 cases managed by antibiotics 167 (60.3%) were treated according to the national STG making the overall concurrence with the national STG 60.3%. Among 168 unspecified URTIs, 102 (60.7%) of the antibiotic prescription were made out of indication for unspecified AURTI which is common cold. Conclusion: There is irrational use of antibiotics prescription in management of URTIs in the hospital indicated by high prevalence of antibiotics prescription and low adherence to the standard treatment guideline.