Antibiotics are the most frequently prescribed medications in modern medicine; they cure disease by killing or injuring microbes. Currently, over 100 different antibiotics are available to cure minor, as well as life-threatening infections. Due to high consumption of these, antibiotic administration should follow guidelines laid down under the caption rational use of antibiotics. According to WHO the rational use of drugs is use of right drug, right dosage at right cost. In many studies, it was observed that a considerable proportion of antibiotic prescribing is sub-optimal. Common errors include use of an agent with an inappropriate spectrum, administration of an antibiotic when there is little evidence of bacterial infection, unnecessarily prolonged courses and overuse of intravenous agents and results increase in avoidable side effects for the patient, expense for the funding body and resistance to antibiotics for the community as a whole. In developing countries, the proportion of patients treated according to clinical guidelines for common diseases in primary care is less than 40% in the public sector and 30% in the private sector. The inappropriate use of antibiotics is more important factor considered in developing countries because of freer marketing of antibiotics and higher frequency of specific infectious diseases. In spite of this fact, there are not many studies dealing with the use of antibiotics. This paper presents a literature review on the monitoring of antibiotics use.
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