Dear colleague,
I like to response about unnecessary hospitalisations of children in Bangladesh. In Bangldesh usually the parents are not interested due to financial constraints. And the public hospitals are suffering from serious bed constraint. So there is less hospitalisations than required. But some private clinics may have this problem. But we have much problems of unnecessary medication. Recently we have completed a cross sectional study, which showed 95% of febrile children had some form medication before attending OPD. Among them, 60% of the children had antibiotics. Of these, 59% had Cefixime follwed by Amoxicillin. These medicins are given by mostly medicine shop keepers, family and friends of parents and parents themselves from previous precriptions. So there is much danger in the practice which will lead to antibiotic resistance and other unnecessary toxicity of drugs.
Prof. Soofia Khatoon
CHIFA profile: Soofia Khatoon is Professor of Paediatrics at Shaheed Suhrawardi Medical College & Hospital, Sher-e Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Presently she is working as secretary general of the Bangladesh Breastfeeding Foundation, Vice President of Bangladesh Neonatal Forum, Executive member of Bangladesh Paediatric Association, Bangladesh Perinatal Society, Bangladesh Society of Neurology & Disability. Professional interests include: Solving neonatal problems & improving breast feeding situation in Bangladesh. soofia_icmh AT yahoo.com
