Acta Biomedica Scientia

STRATEGIES FOR BETTER ANTIBIOTIC USE IN PEDIATRICS FROM DIRECT IMPLEMENTATION

Dr. B. Mani

Fighting drug-resistant infections, correct antibiotic use, pediatric health services, handling infections in children, diseases in children, too much reliance on antibiotics and ensuring proper treatment in children

On a worldwide scale, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a key factor in causing illness and death. To solve this challenge, it is necessary to follow responsible antibiotic usage which is a main priority for many major medical organizations. Antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs) have been proven to assist with this objective. The goal of the study was to review the status of ASPs in pediatric care within different healthcare systems which forms the basis for improving antibiotic use in kids. A group of pediatric healthcare leaders was sent a web-based questionnaire. The survey aimed to understand if there are pediatric ASPs in hospitals when children are admitted and in outpatient settings. It investigated the people handling these programs as well as the specific steps they took to control the use of antibiotics. Out of the 41 who were invited, 27 responded to the survey (66%). The majority of respondents reported providing ASPs to inpatients (74%) and a lower proportion served outpatients (48%) and these ASPs were organized quite differently depending on the setting. It was found that clinical guidance for pediatric infections were widely accessible. Nearly all cases dealt with neonatal infections (96%), followed by pneumonia (93%), urinary tract infections (89%), infections occurring around surgeries (82%) and soft tissue infections (70%). Ministries of education, individual colleges and universities and organizations on the local or regional level were all found to house ASPs (63%, 41% and less than 15% respectively). The team of ASPs mainly consists of pediatricians trained in infectious diseases, who participated at a high rate (62%), as well as microbiologists (58%). Some of the activities reported by pediatric ASPs were educational projects (85%), developing ways to monitor and record antibiotic use and resistance (70% and 67%), ongoing audits (44%), needing approval before prescribing certain antibiotics (44%) and assessing treatments after they were prescribed (33%). Pediatric antibiotic stewardship programs exist in many areas, often in different forms and procedures. The differences are caused by the different resources, types of healthcare and laws in each area. Then, it is important to back continuing and joint initiatives for developing universal ASPs in pediatric healthcare. Linking policy with guidelines will improve the way antibiotics are used and help manage antimicrobial resistance