Misuse of Antibiotics and Potential Economic Loss in Bangladesh

Abstract

Misuse of antibiotics is a global phenomenon. It is an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society. This study is an attempt to determine the rate of inappropriate use or misuse of antibiotics and understand potential economic loss in Bangladesh. This study uses simulated patients and they behaved like ordinary patients when they visited the doctors and collected prescriptions from them. The study finds that of total, 71.2% prescriptions contained antibiotic drug. The more the male doctors the higher the prescription of antibiotics. Doctors in sub-district level prescribe more antibiotics than the doctors in Dhaka urban periphery and public hospitals. This misuse of antibiotics has serious potential economic loss as it will lead to the development of antibacterial resistance coinciding with the increase in drug-resistant organisms which may result in the use of more toxic drugs. It will impose unnecessary costs on the patients and obviously reduce productivity of labor which is a very important factor of economic growth thus economic development.

Keywords: Misuse, Antibiotics, Side effects, Economic growth.