Point Prevalence Survey of Antibiotic Use across 13 Hospitals in Uganda

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Abstract

Standardized monitoring of antibiotic use underpins the effective implementation of antimicrobial stewardship interventions in combatting antimicrobial resistance (AMR). To date, few studies have assessed antibiotic use in hospitals in Uganda to identify gaps that require intervention. This study applied the World Health Organization’s standardized point prevalence survey methodology to assess antibiotic use in 13 public and private not-for-profit hospitals across the country. Data for 1077 patients and 1387 prescriptions were collected between December 2020 and April 2021 and analyzed to understand the characteristics of antibiotic use and the prevalence of the types of antibiotics to assess compliance with Uganda Clinical Guidelines; and classify antibiotics according to the WHO Access, Watch, and Reserve classification. This study found that 74% of patients were on one or more antibiotics. Compliance with Uganda Clinical Guidelines was low (30%); Watch-classified antibiotics were used to a high degree (44% of prescriptions), mainly driven by the wide use of ceftriaxone, which was the most frequently used antibiotic (37% of prescriptions). The results of this study identify key areas for the improvement of antimicrobial stewardship in Uganda and are important benchmarks for future evaluations.

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Sex and gender: modifiers of health, disease, and medicine

Franck Mauvais-Jarvis, Noel C Bairey Merz, Peter Barnes … (2020)

Summary Clinicians can encounter sex and gender disparities in diagnostic and therapeutic responses. These disparities are noted in epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical manifestations, disease progression, and response to treatment. This Review discusses the fundamental influences of sex and gender as modifiers of the major causes of death and morbidity. We articulate how the genetic, epigenetic, and hormonal influences of biological sex influence physiology and disease, and how the social constructs of gender affect the behaviour of the community, clinicians, and patients in the health-care system and interact with pathobiology. We aim to guide clinicians and researchers to consider sex and gender in their approach to diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases as a necessary and fundamental step towards precision medicine, which will benefit men's and women's health.

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Offie Soldin, Donald R Mattison (2009)

Significant differences that exist between the sexes affect the prevalence, incidence and severity of a broad range of diseases and conditions. Men and women also differ in their response to drug treatment. It is therefore essential to understand these reactions in order to appropriately conduct risk assessment and to design safe and effective treatments. Even from that modest perspective, how and when we use drugs can result in unwanted and unexpected outcomes. This review summarizes the sex-based differences that impact on pharmacokinetics, and includes a general comparison of clinical pharmacology as it applies to men, women and pregnant women. Sex-related or pregnancy-induced changes in drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination, when significant, may guide changes in dosage regimen or therapeutic monitoring to increase its effectiveness or reduce potential toxicity. Given those parameters, and our knowledge of sex differences, we can derive essentially all factors necessary for therapeutic optimization. Since this is a rapidly evolving area, it is essential for the practitioner to review drug prescribing information and recent literature in order to fully understand the impact of these differences on clinical therapeutics.

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Sara Hernando-Amado, Teresa Coque, Fernando Baquero … (2019)

Several interconnected human, animal and environmental habitats can contribute to the emergence, evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance, and the health of these contiguous habitats (the focus of the One Health approach) may represent a risk to human health. Additionally, the expansion of resistant clones and antibiotic resistance determinants among human-associated, animal-associated and environmental microbiomes have the potential to alter bacterial population genetics at local and global levels, thereby modifying the structure, and eventually the productivity, of microbiomes where antibiotic-resistant bacteria can expand. Conversely, any change in these habitats (including pollution by antibiotics or by antibiotic-resistant organisms) may influence the structures of their associated bacterial populations, which might affect the spread of antibiotic resistance to, and among, the above-mentioned microbiomes. Besides local transmission among connected habitats-the focus of studies under the One Health concept-the transmission of resistant microorganisms might occur on a broader (even worldwide) scale, requiring coordinated Global Health actions. This Review provides updated information on the elements involved in the evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance at local and global levels, and proposes studies to be performed and strategies to be followed that may help reduce the burden of antibiotic resistance as well as its impact on human and planetary health.