Intern doctors’ views on the current and future antibiotic resistance situation of Chattagram Maa O Shishu Hospital Medical College, Bangladesh

Abstract

Background

Bacterial resistance due to antibiotic misuse is reported every day. Such threat calls for a consensus to develop new strategies to prevent the development of antibiotic resistance of bacteria. Medical doctors must play a pivotal role to control and prevent the misuse of antibiotics. There were complaints that prescribers are lacking behind in updates and advancement in the field. To address such knowledge gap, a study was conducted to know the views of interns on the current antibiotic resistance situation in a teaching hospital in Bangladesh.

Methods

This study was a cross-sectional, randomized, and questionnaire-based survey. Interns of the medicine, gynecology, and surgery departments of Chattagram Maa O Shishu Hospital Medical College were the study population.

Results

Out of 50 respondents, 98% would like more education on antibiotic selection. All respondents believed that prescribing inappropriate or unnecessary antibiotics was professionally unethical. Ninety percent of the participants were confident in making an accurate diagnosis of infection. Eighty-four percent of them were confident about dosage schedule. In all, 98% participants thought that antibiotic resistance is a national problem and 64% of the respondents thought that same problem also existed in their hospital. Study participants were of the view that 41%–60% of antibiotic usages are irrational in Bangladesh. Fifty-eight percent of the study population thought that antimicrobial resistance (AR) would be a greater problem in the future.

Conclusion

The interns believe that there is a knowledge gap on AR. More emphasis should be given to AR and its implications in the undergraduate curriculum. Latest national and international guidelines for antimicrobial therapy and resistance should be made available to the interns.

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Keywords:

• interns
• antibiotic
• prescribing
• resistance
• Bangladesh
• knowledge
• perception

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all the participanting interns of CMOSHMC, Agrabad, Chittagong, Bangladesh, who have given their valuable time despite their busy duty schedule. We are also grateful to the Institutional Review Board and Principal of CMOSHMC, Agrabad, Chittagong, Bangladesh for all their help to conduct the study. This work was supported by the Institutional Review Board of CMOSHMC, Agrabad, Chittagong, Bangladesh and grant support from this institute. The current research was funded by CMOSHMC. The authors are also grateful to Dr Anwarul A Majumder, UK, and Dr S Parasuraman, Malaysia, for their kind cooperation during the study. Finally, we thank Dr Mohd Afandi Bin Muhamad, Malaysia, for his comments.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.