ArticleInfection and drug resistance2024
Antimicrobial Use Among Hospitalized Neonates and Children; Findings and Implications from a Comprehensive Point Prevalence Survey Among General Tertiary Hospitals in Pakistan.
Article in Infection and drug resistance, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Prescription precision: Evaluating antimicrobial prescription practices in paediatric and neonatal inpatients.Southern African journal of infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Drivers influencing antibiotics use in pediatric wards across five public hospitals in Zanzibar: a WHO multiple point prevalence survey.Frontiers in antibiotics · 2026Article
- Adapting global guidelines to local contexts: optimising community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) specific prescribing in Pakistan to counter antimicrobial resistance.BMJ open respiratory research · 2025Article
- The prevalence and risk of mortality associated with antimicrobial resistance within nosocomial settings-a global systematic review and meta-analysis of over 20,000 patients.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Barriers to Compliance with National Guidelines Among Children Hospitalized with Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Vietnam and the Implications.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Global variation in antibiotic prescribing guidelines and the implications for decreasing AMR in the future.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Review
- Progress on the Global Research Agenda for Antimicrobial Resistance in Human Health in Pakistan: Findings and Implications.Infection and drug resistance · 2025Review
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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Abstract
Purpose: Antimicrobial resistance is a global health crisis exacerbated by excessive and inappropriate use of antibiotics, especially among low- and middle-income countries including Pakistan. The paediatric population is a key area in view of their vulnerability and excessive prescribing of antibiotics in Pakistan. Consequently, there is an urgent need to robustly assess antimicrobial use among hospitalized neonates and children in tertiary hospitals in Pakistan as they are generally the training centres for new physicians subsequently treating children. Patients and Methods: A point prevalence survey (PPS) was conducted in the children's wards of 14 tertiary care hospitals in Punjab Province, covering over 50% of the population of Pakistan. This builds on a previous PPS among tertiary care hospitals treating exclusively neonates and children. Results: A total of 1811 neonates and children were surveyed with 1744 patients prescribed antibiotics, a prevalence of 96.3%. A total of 2747 antibiotics were prescribed to these 1744 neonates and children, averaging 1.57 antibiotics per patient. Overall, 57.7% of the patients were prescribed one antibiotic and 27.2% two antibiotics, with 85.6% of antibiotics administered parenterally. Over a third (34.4%) of the antibiotics were prescribed prophylactically, with 44.7% of them for surgical procedures. Among those prescribed antibiotics for surgical procedures, 75.2% were prescribed for more than one day. Overall, 92.2% of antibiotics were prescribed empirically, with 86.2% prescribed without mentioning the rationale for their choice in the notes, with 77.6% having no stop date. Respiratory tract infections were the most common indication (43.4%). Conclusion: A very high prevalence of antibiotic use among neonates and children in tertiary hospitals in Pakistan, including Watch antibiotics, mirroring previous studies. Consequently, initiatives including antimicrobial stewardship programmes are urgently needed to address current inappropriate prescribing.
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