Spanish Journal of Chemotherapy

2000; 13 (Suppl. 2): 36
Abstract # M244

Antimicrobials prescription in outpatient children with acute respiratory tract infections in Russia

L. STRATCHOUNSKI¹, S. RATCHINA¹, S. KUZNETZOVA², L. ZIGANSHINA³, A. HARCHEV⁴

¹ Institute of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, Smolensk, Russian Federation;
² Ural State Medical Academy, Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation;
³ Kazan Medical University, Kazan, Russian Federation;
⁴ St.-Petersburg Paediatric Institute, St. -Petersburg, Russian Federation.

OBJECTIVE

To study the frequency and pattern of antimicrobials prescribing in children with acute respiratory tract infections (RTI) in outpatient departments in Russia.

METHODS

Twenty five randomly selected paediatricians in 5 regions of Russia have completed the specially designed questionnaires. There were : 1595 questionnaires completed for children with acute RTF aged from 0 to 16 (6.6+4.3) attending the consulting rooms. Diagnoses were classified according to ICD-10; antimicrobials - according to ATC codes.

RESULTS

Viral upper RTI, including influenza (JOO, J02, J04, .J05, J06, Jl1) were the most common diagnoses - 78,4%, followed by acute bronchitis ; (J20) - 9.3%, acute tonsillitis (J03) - 8.0% and pneumonia (J18) - 3.7%. Antimicrobials for systemic use (J01) were the most frequently administered ; group of drugs and they were prescribed for 43.0% of patients with viral upper RTI, for 78.0% - with acute bronchitis, for 99.2% - with acute tonsillitis and for 100.0% - with pneumonia retrospectively. Penicillines were the most often prescribed antimicrobials (43.7%), followed by macrolides (24.5%) and co-trimoxazole (24.1%). The most popular drugs were co-trimoxazole (24.1%), ampicillin (18.3%), erythromycin (13.1%) and amoxicillin (9.0%). Children from 7 to 14 years old with viral RTI were most often administered with systemic antimicrobials.

CONCLUSIONS

Antimicrobials for systemic use were the most prescribed group of drugs for the treatment of patients with acute RTI and they are still often used in case of viral infections. Co-trimoxazoie despite of its potentially dangerous ADR and data of high rate of bacterial resistance to antifolates in Russia remains the "first choice" antibiotic in paediatric departments.