102 Indian Journal of Pharmacy Practice, Vol 14, Issue 2, Apr-Jun, 2021 Original Artcle www.ijopp.org DOI: 10.5530/ijopp.14.2.19 Address for correspondence: Dr. Rekha Bisht, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Indore institute of Pharmacy, Madhya Pradesh, INDIA. Phone no: +91 9752095118 Email id: rekha_al03@rediffmail. com An Epidemiological Observation of Judicious use of Antibiotics in Dhar District, M.P. (India) Rekha Bisht*, Arvind Dabi, Pankaj Dixit, Dinesh Kumar Mishra Department of Pharmacology, Indore Institute of Pharmacy, Opposite IIM, Rau-Pithampur Road, Indore. Madhya Pradesh, INDIA. ABSTRACT Background: Antibiotic resistance is presently the gigantic challenge to the effective treatment of infections globally. It is a rapidly growing clinical problem and public health threat. Promiscuous use of antibiotics is epidemic in India and this is an affair of consequential concern. Irrational use of antibiotics can cause increase adverse drug reaction, lead to antibiotic resistance and increase the treatment cost. Antibiotic resistance unfavourably influence both clinical and financial therapeutic results, with repercussion ranging from the failure of an individual patient to respond to therapy and the need for costly and/or toxic alternative medicine to the social cost of higher morbidity and mortality rates, longer duration of hospitalization and the need for changes in empirical therapy. Analysing the antibiotics utilization pattern is significant in the context of its escalating use and its overall impact on the health care system. Materials and Methods: An observational and prospective study was conducted by interviewing (using a data collection form) the patients to evaluate the utilization of antibiotics in multispecialty hospital, Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh, India. Results: Out of 102 patients interviewed, 85 (83.33%) were prescribed antibiotics either alone or in combination with other drugs. The maximum number of patients received antibiotics belongs to the age group of 31-40 (22, 18.7%). Ciprofloxacin (25, 21.25%) was the widely prescribed antibiotics followed by metronidazole (20, 17%) penicillin (15, 12.75%), azithromycin (12, 10.2%) cephalosporin (11, 9.35%) and amoxicillin (10, 8.5%). Maximum prescriptions of antibiotics were for high grade fever (29, 24.65%) followed by gastrointestinal infection (18, 15.3%). Conclusion: Proper strategy like antibiotic policy and educational intercession are necessary to control the excessive use of antibiotics in health care settings. Key words: Antibiotics, Drug utilization, Antibiotic Resistance, Observational study, Prospective study. INTRODUCTION Antibiotics are among the most widely prescribed medications both in the hospital setting and the community setting. Resistance to antibiotics becomes a major threat to public health due to escalating consumption of antibiotic. 1 Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is an increasing clinical issue worldwide and estimated to cause 10 million deaths annually by 2050. 2,3 Excessive use of antibiotic is a primary driver of antibiotic resistance and reducing antibiotic use is a central strategy for confronting resistance. 4 There are various reasons for escalating use of antibiotics includes rising incomes, health insurance and burden of infectious worldwide. 5 In the United States, over 2 million people are affected with antibiotic-resistant infections each year, account for at least 23,000 deaths and have a total economic burden that exceeds $ 20 billion in direct healthcare costs alone. 6 In India, 20% to 50 % of all antibiotics used are appearing to be used not only in excess but also inappropriately. 7 If the current scenario does not change, there will be economic losses of 100 trillion dollars due to resistant infections worldwide. 8 Because of high treatment costs associated with the resistant infections and limited access to antibiotics, India is assailable to the loss of antibiotic effcacy. 9 It has been estimated that by 2050, 700,000 deaths per year occur inevitably to antimicrobial resistance and, there might be 10 million deaths per year. 8 Bacteria causing common or severe infections have developed resistance to varying degrees to each new antibiotic coming to market since over several decades.