Vol.69 No.5 September 2021

Outpatient use of oral antibiotics and initiatives for appropriate use

Fumiya Ebihara¹⁾, Yukihiro Hamada¹⁾, Takumi Maruyama¹⁾, Seiko Nakamura¹⁾, Shiori Takahashi¹⁾, Yuki Hasegawa¹⁾, Toshiko Konishi¹⁾, Toshihiro Mitsuda²⁾, Ken Kikuchi³⁾ and Toshimi Kimura¹⁾

¹⁾Department of pharmacy, Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital, 8-1 Kawada, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
²⁾Department of Infection Prevention and Control, Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital
³⁾Department of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital

Abstract

One of the goals of the action plan against antimicrobial resistance, AMR, is to achieve a 50% reduction in the use of oral antibiotics by 2020, as compared to that in 2013. Towards this goal, it is necessary to understand the status of use of oral antibacterial agents for acute respiratory tract infections and acute diarrhea under the antimicrobial stewardship (AS) program in Japan. In our hospital research conducted over a period of 2 years, we found significant reductions (p<0.01) in the defined daily doses (DDDs) of oral third-generation cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones. Furthermore, a significant reduction was also found in the total DDDs of antibiotics used. In addition, implementation of AS reduced the unnecessary antimicrobial prescription rate for acute respiratory tract infections and acute diarrhea.

Key word

oral antibacterial agent, outpatient, acute respiratory infection, acute diarrhea, antimicrobial stewardship

Received

July 16, 2021

Accepted

August 6, 2021

Jpn. J. Chemother. 69 (5): 392-397, 2021