TY - JOUR
AU - Ul Mustafa, Zia
AU - Batool, Arfa
AU - Ibrar, Hadia
AU - Salman, Muhammad
AU - Habib Khan, Yusra
AU - Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain
AU - Meyer, Johanna C.
AU - Godman, Brian
AU - Moore, Catrin E.
PY - 2023
DA - November
TI - Bacterial co-infections, secondary infections and antimicrobial use among hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the sixth wave in Pakistan: findings and implications
JO - Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy
DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/14787210.2023.2299387
AB - Introduction: Previous studies in Pakistan have shown considerable over prescribing of antibiotics in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 despite very low prevalence of bacterial infections. Irrational use of antibiotics will worsen antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Methods: Retrospective analysis of medical records of patients in the COVID-19 wards of three tertiary care hospitals to assess antibiotic use during the sixth COVID-19 wave. Results: 284 patients were included, most were male (66.9%), aged 30-50 years (50.7%) with diabetes mellitus the most common comorbidity. The most common symptoms at presentation were cough (47.9%) and arthralgia-myalgia (41.5%). Around 3% were asymptomatic, 34.9% mild, 30.3% moderate and 23.6% with severe disease, with 8.1% critical. Chest X-ray abnormalities were seen in 43.3% of patients and 37% had elevated white cell counts, with 35.2% elevated C-reactive protein levels. Around 91% COVID-19 patients were prescribed antibiotics during their hospital stay, with only a few with proven bacterial co-infections or secondary bacterial infections. Most antibiotics were from the ‘Watch’ category (90.8%) followed by the ‘Reserve’ category (4.8%), similar to previous COVID-19 waves. Conclusion: There continued to be excessive antibiotics use among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Urgent measures are needed to address inappropriate prescribing including greater prescribing of Access antibiotics where pertinent.
PB - Taylor and Francis
UR - https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/87376/
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
KW - Hospital care
ER