Dispense of non-prescribed antibiotics without prescription from pharmacies in Jhelum: a cross-sectional survey
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Health Services Academy, Islamabad, Pakistan
Publication date: 2023-04-27
Popul. Med. 2023;5(Supplement):A99
ABSTRACT
The main power source for antibiotics is local pharmacies. Our goal was to evaluate the expertise of pharmacy employees and the distribution of non-prescription antibiotics. In Punjab, Jhelum, we carried out a cross-sectional study from April 2022 to July 2022. We employed a conscience, structured, pretested, and authorized multilingual questionnaire and performed statistical analysis using chi-square tests. The study received responses from 100 pharmacy wholesalers in total (95%); 69.4% of them were male and between the ages of 20 and 50. The majority of participants about 34.9% said that community pharmacists frequently supply non-prescription antibiotics, and 53.7% said they were qualified to do so. Approximately 46.3 percent thought this was a role in the rise of antimicrobial resistance. None of the respondent thought that this approach encouraged illogical antibiotic use, and partial (58.0%) thought that antimicrobial resistance was a problem for public health. Only 58.0 % of respondents said they advised patients to seek medical advice before using antibiotics, and 19.1 % said their dispensing procedures minimized the financial patients burden. A little over 44.0 % of pharmacy owners claimed to be knowledgeable about using antibiotics. The most common class of antibiotics given out without a prescription was nitroimidazole. The distribution of injectable and widespread antibiotics may represent a risk to the ability to treat infections. The distribution of antibiotics without a prescription is related to staff knowledge deficiencies. This improper practise has to stop right away.