Evaluation of antibiotic prescription patterns using WHO AWaRe classification

Antimicrobial resistance is a rising problem worldwide and it poses a serious risk to public health. In Pakistan, about 70.0% of the Acinetobacter group of bacteria were resistant to all antibiotics and were responsible for high mortality among neonates within the first week of life.

To evaluate the pattern of antibiotic prescription in the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Department of Shalamar Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan, using the WHO AWaRe 2021 classification.

We collected prescription data from the ENT outpatient department of Shalamar Hospital from October to December 2021. We compared the quantitative analysis of antibiotics with the WHO AWaRe classification. We analysed the data using SPSS version 26 and discussed the results with the ENT Department for possible improvements.

Some 862 (12.1%) of the total 7126 entries were assessed. Others were excluded because they had some missing data or had no antibiotic prescription. Of all the antibiotics prescribed, around 54.9% belonged to the access category. The WHO 13th General Programme of Work 2019-2023 recommends a country-level target of at least 60% of the total antibiotic consumption in the access group antibiotics.

The outpatient department of the ENT did not prescribe any reserve or not recommended antibiotics. The use of watch antibiotics was higher than recommended by the WHO AWaRe classification. More efforts should be made to increase prescriptions from the AWaRe access group to achieve the 60% minimum target recommended by WHO for the country.