TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding the social drivers of antibiotic use during COVID-19 in Bangladesh
T2 - implications for reduction of antimicrobial resistance
AU - Kalam, Abul
AU - Shano, Shahanaj
AU - Khan, Mohammad Asif
AU - Islam, Ariful
AU - Warren, Narelle
AU - Hassan, Mohammad Mahmudul
AU - Davis, Mark
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is partially funded by Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS), ID number SD2019967. Mohammad Mahmudul Hassan was supported by BANBEIS. We would like to thank the research participants who gave their valuable time and took participate in the study voluntarily. We also thank to Chattogram Veterinary and Animal Science University for giving ethical approval of this study. The authors also thank to the RAs who conducted all interviews. The authors acknowledge with particular gratitude the anonymous reviewers who offered detailed and helpful comments on the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Kalam et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health crisis that is now impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Little is known how COVID-19 risks influence people to consume antibiotics, particularly in contexts like Bangladesh where these pharmaceuticals can be purchased without a prescription. This paper identifies the social drivers of antibiotics use among home-based patients who have tested positive with SARS-CoV-2 or have COVID-19-like symptoms. Using qualitative telephone interviews, the research was conducted in two Bangladesh cities with 40 participants who reported that they had tested positive for coronavirus (n = 20) or had COVID-19-like symptoms (n = 20). Our analysis identified five themes in antibiotic use narratives: antibiotics as ‘big’ medicine; managing anxiety; dealing with social repercussions of COVID-19 infection; lack of access to COVID-19 testing and healthcare services; and informal sources of treatment advice. Antibiotics were seen to solve physical and social aspects of COVID-19 infection, with urgent ramifications for AMR in Bangladesh and more general implications for global efforts to mitigate AMR.
AB - Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health crisis that is now impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Little is known how COVID-19 risks influence people to consume antibiotics, particularly in contexts like Bangladesh where these pharmaceuticals can be purchased without a prescription. This paper identifies the social drivers of antibiotics use among home-based patients who have tested positive with SARS-CoV-2 or have COVID-19-like symptoms. Using qualitative telephone interviews, the research was conducted in two Bangladesh cities with 40 participants who reported that they had tested positive for coronavirus (n = 20) or had COVID-19-like symptoms (n = 20). Our analysis identified five themes in antibiotic use narratives: antibiotics as ‘big’ medicine; managing anxiety; dealing with social repercussions of COVID-19 infection; lack of access to COVID-19 testing and healthcare services; and informal sources of treatment advice. Antibiotics were seen to solve physical and social aspects of COVID-19 infection, with urgent ramifications for AMR in Bangladesh and more general implications for global efforts to mitigate AMR.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85122188042
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0261368
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0261368
M3 - Article
C2 - 34905563
AN - SCOPUS:85122188042
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 16
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 12
M1 - e0261368
ER -
SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being