High prescription of antibiotics could harm the health of children and their agility to fight the pathogens, according to a new study. AntibioChildren in Low and Middle Income Countries receive more antibiotic doses than children in other countries.
It has been revealed that on an average 25 antibiotic prescriptions are given to children in low and middle income countries during the first five years of life. The study has been conducted by Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health.
The study has revealed that overdose of antibiotic was a big threat to the global health and also to the health of children. It has already been established that antimicrobial resistance was responsible for thousands of deaths each year and it could lead to more than ten million deaths yearly by 2050.
Lead Author of the study Gunther Fink was quoted as saying that high antibiotic prescription rates was really a threat to many countries and the results were really alarming.
The researchers said that though detailed information was available n high income countries, it was not available in Low and middle class income countries. For the study, the researchers had collected data from eight countries- Namibia, Kenya, Hati, Malawi, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Nepal. It was found that children in these countries got 25 antibiotic doses within their first five years. They found that 81 per cent of children received the antibiotic for respiratory illness, 50 per cent received it for diarrhoea and 28 per cent received antibiotic doses for Malaria.
