Current Prescribing Practices of Hospitalized Children Suffering From Pneumonia With Respect to Essential Drug List of Bangladesh

Abstract

This retrospective study was designed to observe the adherence of the prescribing practices of hospitalized children suffering from pneumonia with the essential drug list (EDL) of our country. During ten months study period, 532 children (under 5 years of age) suffering from Pneumonia were enrolled from the Institutes of Child Health & Shisu Sasthya Foundation Hospital, Mirpur, Dhaka. This research revealed that cephalosporin alone or in combination with an aminoglycosides was most common antibiotics which were prescribed for the treatment of children suffering from pneumonia. But surprisingly this given treatment had very insignificant (7.98%) adherence with the essential drug list (EDL) of Bangladesh. So, this result supports the need of updating the Essential drug list of Bangladesh with modern evidence based effective drugs. Another outcome of this study indicated that in 75.2% cases there is a practice of polypharmacy in Bangladesh. Polypharmacy and overuse/misuse of drugs, especially antibiotics, should be discouraged to avoid drug resistance and its consequences. Furthermore, countywide multicenter research with a larger sample is still needed to consolidate the observation of this study.