Antibiotic consumption history of patients in a referred laboratory in Yaounde

Background. Regulation of antibiotic prescription and con-sumption remains a major public health burden in low-and mid-dle-income countries.Objective. This study aimed to describe the antibiotic con-sumption of patients who had a positive antibiotic culture in a ref-erence laboratory.Methods. A retrospective descriptive study was conducted among 113 participants with positive antibiograms with a docu-mented history of antibiotics intake at the Yaounde University Teaching Hospital in Cameroon between January 2016 and June 2021. Data were stored and analyzed using the Census and Survey Processing System version 7.3 and Statistical Package for Social Science version 25.0. Descriptive statistics were used to estimate the indicators. Results. Of the 113 patients enrolled, 105 had a history of drug use; 56 participants (53.3%) had taken at least 2 antibiotics prior to sampling. Cephalosporins were the most consumed antibiotics (41%), followed by nitroimidazols (28.6%) and penicillins (28.6%). According to the World Health Organization classifica-tion, 55 (52.4%) took major priority antibiotics.Conclusion. We are on the alert and there is an urgent need to raise awareness among clinicians and patients alike by providing them with good clinical practice guidelines.