Department of Pharmacology, Subharti Medical College and Hospital, Delhi–Haridwar Bypass Road, Meerut-250005, Uttar Pradesh, India
*Corresponding author email id: khoslapp@yahoo.com
Online published on 16 April, 2015.
Antimicrobial resistance and increasing cost of treatment is emerging as a global problem that has emerged due to irrational use of drugs. One of the principles for rational use of drugs is prescribing an affordable drug to the patients.
Considering the fact that many authors have reported irrational use of antimicrobials, we took an initiative to estimate the economic burden of antimicrobials for patients admitted in our hospital.
We found that in majority of the cases, antimicrobials were prescribed for prophylaxis. Irrespective of the fact that antimicrobials were prescribed for prophylaxis or treatment, they almost doubled the cost of medicines. In medicine, surgery and orthopaedic units, antibiotics contributed to more than 50% of the total costs on medicines in admitted patients.
Antibiotic cost is a major contributor towards total cost of treatment of a patient.
Cost, Pharmacoeconomics, Hospital economics, Antibiotics, Burden, Antimicrobials, Resistance
