Antibiotic use amongst pregnant women in a public hospital in KwaZulu-Natal

Health SA Gesondheid

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Antibiotic use amongst pregnant women in a public hospital in KwaZulu-Natal
 
Creator Naidoo, Sasha Bangalee, Varsha Oosthuizen, Frasia
 
Subject Pharmaceutical Sciences pregnancy; antibiotics; pharmacovigilance; teratogenicity; public healthcare
Description Background: Antibiotics are amongst the more frequently prescribed medicines in pregnant women and the use of antibiotics is increasing. However, with limited studies available in this population, the safe use of antibiotics in pregnancy remains a concern.Aim: To evaluate the use of antibiotics amongst pregnant women attending a public health care facility. The main objective of this study was to quantify the types of antibiotics used in pregnant women.Setting: A public hospital classified as a referral hospital located in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.Methods: Demographic and treatment information of women were collected retrospectively from January 2019 to July 2019. A total of 184 pregnant patients, who received antibiotic therapy, were included in this study. Descriptive and analytical measures were used to analyse both patient demographics and treatment variables.Results: A total of 416 antibiotic prescriptions, issued to 184 patients, were reviewed. Penicillins (39.7%), macrolides (13.0%) and combination penicillin- and beta-lactam inhibitors (12.3%) were reported as the most commonly prescribed antibiotics. Rifamycin (2.9%), hydrazides (2.2%) and aminoglycosides (1.9%) were less frequently prescribed. Most antibiotics were prescribed for diseases of the circulatory system (36.1%).Conclusion: Several classes of antibiotics were used in pregnancy despite the lack of available safety data and clinical evidence. Informing women of the potential side effects and keeping abreast with new information played an important role in the safe, rational and effective use of medicines that contributed to improving maternal health.
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor University of KwaZulu-Natal
Date 2021-05-31
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Quantitative; Descriptive; retrospective
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hsag.v26i0.1516
 
Source Health SA Gesondheid; Vol 26 (2021); 10 pages 2071-9736 1025-9848
 
Language eng
 
Relation
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https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/1516/html https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/1516/epub https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/1516/xml_1 https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/1516/pdf_1
 
Coverage Africa; South Africa; KwaZulu-Natal;Durban; Ethekwini District 2019, January-July 18 years or older; Female; Pregnant; Treated with an antibiotic as an inpatient or outpatient
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Sasha Naidoo, Varsha Bangalee, Frasia Oosthuizen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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