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Antibiotic misuse is the most common cause of antimicrobial resistance—a globally declared emergency. This necessitates the introduction of rational antibiotic usage management policy. The paediatrics department of a public teaching hospital with around 500 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admissions annually revealed 75% of NICU admission exposure to any antibiotics. The aim was to institute antibiotic stewardship programme (ASP) to optimise antibiotic usage from existing 75% to 40% in a 6-month period through a quality improvement (QI) project.A root cause analysis using fishbone diagram was performed to identify the possible reasons for the high antibiotic usage. Six Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles were conducted to implement the protocols for usage of antibiotics for well-defined indications; active laboratory engagement to decrease the turnaround time for blood culture results; a hard stop to all antibiotic orders after 72 hours; streamlining of antibiotic usage; strengthening universal aseptic practices; and confidence building of staff. The outcomes monitored were antibiotic exposure rates, average number of antibiotic days in all NICU admissions, sepsis rates and mortality.Institution of ASP had significantly reduced antibiotic exposure in NICU admissions, that is, from 75% in March to 41% in August 2018. Median (IQR) antibiotic days per infant in NICU went down from 3 to 0 (0–6). The per cent of NICU admission with culture-positive sepsis and all-cause mortality rate in NICU declined from 18% to 11.56% and 25% to 16%, respectively, over these 6 months.Thus, ASP for rationalising antibiotic usage was successfully instituted in NICU of a rural medical college in central India through QI, without any adverse effect on sepsis and mortality.

Sickle-cell disease (SCD) a hereditary autosomal recessive disorder is the most common haemoglobinopathy worldwide. In India, it is the second most common haemoglobinopathy next to Thalassemia, prevalent in the tribal population of Central and Southern parts of India. The pathophysiology of the disease is point mutation in the beta globin chain leading to sickling of RBCs which causes obstruction in microvasculature leading to acute events like Vaso-occlusive crisis. Patients with SCD are also at an increase of orthopaedic manifestation like osteomyelitis, septic arthritis or osteonecrosis. We report a case of a 10 months old male child who presented with anaemia and fever. Child was diagnosed with SCD, later developed swelling of right shoulder joint and restrictions of movements. Diagnosis of septic arthritis of shoulder with scapular osteomyelitis was made with the help of radiological and laboratory investigations. Child was managed with injectable antibiotics and symptomatic treatment. Patients with SCD as a result of occlusion of microvasculature along with immunocompromised state are at higher risk of bacterial infections. Osteomyelitis is one of the dreaded complications. Its clinical presentation is similar to that of VOC hence there occurs a dilemma in diagnosis. A multidisciplinary approach including high degree of clinical suspicion, laboratory investigation and radiological imagining can help in early diagnosis and management.