Antibiotic abuse in acute respiratory diseases

Abstract

Infectious diseases, mainly respiratory, are the principal motive of attending doctor's office at pediatric ages and, though everybody knows that viruses are the most frequent cause, antibiotics are prescribed. The objective of the current study is to know the prescription before and after an intervention is carried out, evaluating its possible utility. A transversal study was carried out before and after an intervention, with retrospective data obtained from the clinical histories of children attending three doctors' offices of José Antonio Echeverría Policlinic. The infectious processes children went through during these period and the antibiotics used against each process in each child were taken into account. Between the periods, an intervention was carried out. It was an update course on acute respiratory diseases in children. The most frequent diagnoses in both periods were common cold, tonsillitis with exudates and acute otitis media , plus bronchitis in the first period. The most frequently prescribed antibiotics were penicillin V, erythromycin, soda penicillin and cephalexine in the first period, and amoxicillin, erythromycin and penicillin V in the second period. The number of children do not receiving any antibiotic cycle increases in the second period and decrease the number of children receiving four or more cycles. The adaptation of the therapeutic decision and the prescribed antibiotic increases in the second period.