Abstract

According to World Health Organization (WHO), pneumonia is a form of acute respiratory infection that affects the lungs. The leading infectious cause of death in children worldwide is pneumonia. In 2019, pneumonia took the lives of 740180 children under the age of 5. Antibiotics are effective in treating bacterial pneumonia, but only one-third of children who develop pneumonia receive the accurate dose. In this paper, we are trying to determine whether the pneumonia treatment pattern in hospitals of Bangladesh for pediatric patients is following the standard guideline treatment or varies from the guideline. And so, we have collected 110 prescriptions from seven hospitals of Bangladesh. Some of these prescription patterns of those hospitals vary from the standard guidelines- IDSA, WHO, NIH, IAP. However, some prescribed medicine patterns are also similar to the guidelines. According to the guidelines, Meropenem is not recommended as a first-line treatment for pneumonic children. But, in case of the treatment pattern in samples collected from hospitals of Bangladesh, Meropenem is the second highest (32.73%) used medicine for pneumonic children. Moreover, Amoxicillin is recommended as the first line treatment for children in standard guideline, but this medicine is rarely found in the collected prescription. The irrational use of antibiotics and increased rate of resistance leads to major challenges. It is very essential to raise awareness regarding the use of antibiotics and non-antibiotics among the people of Bangladesh.

Keywords

pneumonia treatment, antibiotic misuse, antibiotic resistance, pediatric pneumonia, Bangladesh healthcare