Point Prevalence Survey of Antimicrobial Prescription and Consumption in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital: A Gateway to the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program

Antimicrobial stewardship is an important action plan for curbing the rising trend of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Surveillance of antimicrobial use and consumption is needed as baseline data and for monitoring the impact of antimicrobial stewardship interventions. The survey was done to understand the burden of AMR, in view of establishing an antimicrobial stewardship program in our hospital.

A point prevalence survey (PPS) of antimicrobial use and consumption was conducted on all inpatients admitted before 8.00 am on the days of the survey using a standardized questionnaire. The collected data were entered online into the Global PPS web-based application (www.global-pps.com), for analysis.

Of the 178 patients admitted during the survey period, 50.6% were on one or more antimicrobial agents. All the patients in adult intensive care units were on antibiotics (100%), followed by neonatal intensive care units (83.3%), with the least being adult medical wards (39.4%). Beta-lactam antibiotics were the most frequently prescribed antimicrobial for various infections, especially skin and soft tissue infections, 41.3%, which were the most common diagnoses treated with antibiotics. The infection was mostly community-acquired (81.6%), of which 94.9% were treated empirically. There was no written guideline in existence.

The present study revealed a poor prescribing habit because of a high rate of empirical treatment. The need for antimicrobial stewardship cannot be overemphasized as it will help streamline and improve the prescribing pattern.