Kids in hospitals are popping wrong pills

The drugs which are often prescribed for hospitalised kids are inappropriate, a global study has suggested. According to the study conducted by the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, nearly a third of all antibiotics prescribed for hospitalised children globally were intended to prevent potential infections rather than to treat disease.

A large proportion of these preventive, or prophylactic, prescriptions also were for broad-spectrum antibiotics or combinations of antibiotics, or were for prolonged periods, which can hasten the development of antibioticresistant bacteria and drugresistant infections.

“This pattern and high rate of prophylactic prescribing indicates a clear overuse of antibiotics,” said study author Markus Hufnagel. “Hopefully, our study results will help to raise awareness among health professionals about appropriate prescribing of antibiotics in children,” Dr. Hufnagel said.

The study provided a snapshot of antibiotic prescriptions for 6,818 children who were inpatients at 226 pediatric hospitals in 41 countries, including four hospitals in the United States, during one day in 2012.

Of the antibiotics prescribed for prophylactic use, 26.6 percent were to prevent potential infections associated with an upcoming surgery, and the vast majority of these antibiotics were given for more than one day. The remaining 73.4 percent of the prophylactic prescriptions were intended to potentially prevent other types of infections. Approximately half (51.8 percent) of all preventive antibiotic prescriptions were for broadspectrum antibiotics. –ANI