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Improving antibiotic utilization in West Africa: enhancing interventions through systematic review and evidence synthesis

Donkor ES, Osman AH, Aglomasa BC, Awere-Duodu A, Odoom A, Opoku-Asare B, Lazarus G

Antimicrobial resistance and infection control, 2025

12 citations

Abstract

Background: Bacterial infection has been estimated to become the leading cause of death by 2050, causing 10 million deaths across the globe due to the surge in antibiotic resistance. Despite western sub-Saharan Africa being identified as one of the major hotspots of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) with the highest mortality, a comprehensive regional analysis of the magnitude and key drivers of AMR due to human antibiotic use has not been conducted.

Method: We carried out a systematic review by conducting a comprehensive search in various databases including PubMed and Scopus for eligible articles published in the English Language between 1 January 2000 and 14 February 2024. Five key domains of antibiotic use were focused on: (1) antibiotic consumption; (2) appropriate antibiotic prescription; (3) indicators or key drivers of antibiotic use; (4) antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) interventions; (5) knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of antibiotic consumers and providers. Data were extracted from eligible papers for all the five domains under consideration and random-effects model meta-analysis was carried out for antibiotic consumption.

Results: Out of the 2613 records obtained, 64 articles which were unevenly distributed in the region were eligible for inclusion in our study. These articles reported on antibiotic consumption (5), appropriate antibiotic prescription (10), indicators or key drivers of antibiotic use (10), AMS interventions (10), and 31 studies reported on…

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