ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Research Article | Open Access
Geetanjali Hiremath1, Rajesh Vishnu Naik1, Harsha Hanji2 and Shrikant Hiremath3
1Department of Pharmacology, KLE JGMM Medical College, Hubli, KLE Academy of Higher Education and Research, Karnataka, India.
2Department of Pulmonary Medicine, SDM College of Medical Sciences and Hospital, Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara University, Dharwad, Karnataka, India.
3Department of Pulmonary Medicine, KLE JGMM Medical College, Hubli, KLE Academy of Higher Education and Research, Karnataka, India.
Article Number: 9581 | © The Author(s). 2024
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2024;18(3):1996-2004. https://doi.org/10.22207/JPAM.18.3.50
Received: 23 May 2024 | Accepted: 31 July 2024 | Published online: 29 August 2024
Issue online: September 2024
Abstract

The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) emerged as a pandemic at the end of 2019. The clinical presentation of COVID-19 was comparable to bacterial infections, and due to the ambiguity of an effective treatment method, the healthcare professionals routinely used antibiotics to treat the patients. So, this study evaluated the antibiotic usage patterns at our hospitals among COVID-19 patients, considering the World Health Organization (WHO) AWaRe (Access, Watch, and Reserve) classification. The present study was a retrospective observational hospital record-based study on COVID-19 patients admitted from March-August 2020. A total of 256 COVID-19 patients were enrolled, considering inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data collection utilizing a standardized case record form to capture all information methodically based on age, sex, comorbidities, duration, and nature of the symptoms. Drug data, for example antibiotic usage patterns were collected with detailed prescription analysis, including route, dose, frequency and number of antibiotics used. A structured proforma was used to analyze data, and descriptive statistical analysis was performed and presented as Histograms. The WHO AWaRe antibiotic classification was used to determine the antibiotics’ suitability for empirical therapy. The mean age of the participants was 40.00 ± 15.46 years with male predominance, 188 (73.43%) in number, compared to females, with 68 (26.56%). Almost all the current study participants received one or more antibiotics during their hospital stay, and a maximum of the patients 126 (49.22%) received 2 antibiotics during treatment, 78 (30.47%) subjects who were managed with 3 antibiotics, and the rest, 52 (20.31%) participants received only 1 antibiotic during their hospital stay. To treat moderate to severely ill patients, the most used antibiotic was doxycycline, followed by meropenem and piperacillin/tazobactam. The findings of this study will provide baseline data that will help to generate strategies to reduce antibiotic prescriptions for the formulation of better antibiotic stewardship programs (ASP) and institutional policies to fight against any infection in a better way in the near future.

Keywords

Antimicrobial Agent, Coronavirus Disease, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Respiratory Infection, WHO AWaRe

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© The Author(s) 2024. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.