Making Antibiotic Choices: Formula Derivation and Usage in the Rational Selection of Antibiotics in the Empirical Treatment of Infections

Initiative to progress research on medicine utilization in Africa: formation of the Medicines Utilization Research in Africa group

“…Matthias Adorka discussed ongoing research in Namibia, which includes antibiotic prescribing practices in outpatient departments of public hospitals and affiliate clinics (10,11) as well as (i) assessment of current antibiotic prescribing in respiratory tract infections; (ii) the development of a computerized algorithm for the appropriate prescribing of antibiotics in the treatment of respiratory tract infections in primary healthcare settings and (iii) Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of anti-TB drugs in drug resistant patients. Other projects included assessing gentamicin therapy in the elderly and whether there is a need to carry out renal function tests before commencing therapy using a pharmacokinetic approach.…”

“…Initial disease areas for comparing utilisation and policies across countries include antibiotics and ARVs. This will start with southern Africa countries, building on previous research surrounding antibiotics (6,10,11,18,20). Other research topics include policies surrounding generics as well as complementary and alternative medicines.…”