Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan 9:1:1045081.
doi: 10.3389/frabi.2022.1045081. eCollection 2022.

Point prevalence survey on antibiotic use in the hospitals of Mauritius

Lovena Preeyadarshini Veerapa-Mangroo  1   2 , Harena Rasamoelina-Andriamanivo  2   3 , Mohammad Iqbal Issack  2   4 , Eric Cardinale  2   5
Affiliations

Point prevalence survey on antibiotic use in the hospitals of Mauritius

Lovena Preeyadarshini Veerapa-Mangroo et al. Front Antibiot. .

Abstract

Background: This study aims at determining the antibiotic prescribing pattern in admitted patients in the regional public hospitals of Mauritius.

Methods: A Point Prevalence Survey (PPS) on antibiotic use according to the World Health Organization Methodology for PPS on antibiotic use in hospitals, was carried out in 3 secondary public hospitals. Data was collected in February 2018 for Hospital 1 and in April-May 2019 for Hospital 2 and Hospital 3. Eligible inpatients were those who were hospitalized in the ward at 8.00 a.m. on the day of the survey.

Results: Among 915 inpatients, 482 (53%) were treated with 753 therapies or prescriptions of antibiotics, averaging 1.6 therapies or prescriptions per patient. Among those treated with antibiotics, an average of 88 patients (55%), 58 patients (36%) and 15 patients (9%) were given 1, 2 and 3 or more antibiotics respectively. The highest proportion of inpatients treated with antibiotics was among those with community acquired infections (n=243, 50%) followed by surgical prophylaxis (n=191, 40%). In the three hospitals, it was observed that third generation cephalosporins (ceftriaxone, cefotaxime), amoxicillin, metronidazole (parenteral) and ciprofloxacin accounted for more than 75% of total prescriptions and sixteen per cent (16%) of patients had an Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing report before prescription of antibiotics.

Conclusion: This study provides valuable information on antibiotic use in the country. Several misuses have been identified such as the excessive use of antibiotics for surgical prophylaxis, the high use of third generation cephalosporins and of the WATCH category of antibiotics. It also demonstrates a low percentage of Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing prior to prescription of antibiotics. This investigation shows that there is now a pressing need to repeat the Point Prevalence Survey on antibiotic use in hospitals in future whilst extending the survey to the private healthcare system to get a complete picture concerning antibiotic use in Mauritius.

Keywords: Mauritius; antibiotic use; epidemiology; hospitals; point prevalence survey.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Average proportion of prescriptions done by class of antibiotics, ATC3 (%).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Proportion of inpatients on antibiotics by indication type at the hospitals (%).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Average proportion of antibiotic prescriptions by indication type (ATC 5 level) (%).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Proportion of the most common diagnosis among the inpatients on antibiotics (%).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Proportion of commonly used drugs (ATC 5 level) accounting for 75% of total antibiotic use (%).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ballow C. H., Schentag J. J. (1992). Trends in Antibiotic Utilization and Bacterial Resistance. Report of the National Nosocomial Resistance Surveillance Group. Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease 15(2), 6. doi: 10.1016/0732-8893(92)90006-F - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bristow I. R., Spruce M. C. (2009). Fungal foot infection, cellulitis and diabetes: a review. Diabetic Med. 26 (5), 548–551. doi: 10.1111/j.1464-5491.2009.02722.x - DOI - PubMed
    1. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (2011-2012) Point prevalence survey of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial use in European acute care hospitals. Available at: www.ecdc.europa.eu. - PubMed
    1. Goossens H., Ferech M., Vander S. R. (2005). ESAC project group, outpatient antibiotic use in Europe and association with resistance: a cross-national database study. Lancet 365 (9459), 579–587. - PubMed
    1. Hawn M. T., Richman J. S., Vick C. C., Deierhoi R. J., Graham L. A., Henderson W. G., et al. . (2013). Timing of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis and the risk of surgical site infection. JAMA Surg. 148 (7), 649–657. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2013.134 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources