DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i08.064

Pages: 3063-3065

This is a cross sectional self-administered questionnaire based study conducted on 67 (response rate 69%) doctors including specialists from medical and surgical branches and junior doctors. Only 15% of junior doctors and 50% of specialists were very confident in their choice of antibiotic. Only 46% had access and used local antibiogram in selection of antibiotics. Use of national guidelines was 18% and 80% is surgical and medical specialities respectively. Only 15% of respondents had any form of education on antibiotics in the last year. 35% of respondents felt there was not enough source of information on antibiotics. 73% of respondents felt that antibiotics are overused in their hospital. Lack of access to local antibiogram (96%), overuse of antibiotics (93%) and self-prescription (85%) were thought as common cause of antibiotic resistance. Respondents failed to recognise hand washing (48%), poor adherence (9%) and use of antibiotics in unknown febrile illness (7%) as cause of antibiotic resistance. Only 24% of the respondents were in favour of an approval committee for use of antibiotics. The study highlights the lack of ongoing education on antibiotics, failure to recognise important causes of antibiotic resistance and non-availability of the local antibiogram data.