Antibiotics for Primary Care Practice

Dear Colleagues,

According to the CDC, an estimated 80–90% of human antibiotic use occurs in outpatient settings.  Primary healthcare practice is a driver according to the WHO as well as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. Antibiotics are highly prescribed in primary care across LMICs. On a global level, the use of antibiotics has increased more than 20% according to numerous reports. This fuels concerns over the threat of antibiotic resistance as well as judicious decision making to treat infections either empirically or evidenced based. Indeed, antibiotic resistance is estimated to cause a mortality rate of nearly five million each year. In primary care settings including nursing homes, the main clinical concern is “over-prescription”. Numerous studies have reported that between 20 and 50% of antibiotic prescriptions in primary care are inappropriate particularly in the setting of viral infections. This was highly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contributing factors such as diagnostic uncertainty, patient pressure, limited time of clinical consultation, and lack of awareness add to the complexity of antibiotic consumption. In the US alone, at least 28% of antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary in US doctors’ offices and emergency departments according to CDC data. Azithromycin, amoxicillin and TMP/SMX are the most prescribed primary care antibiotics among US primary care physicians. Further, as remote primary care consultations are becoming the standard of care in certain counties, the higher rate of antibiotic prescription habits for both children and adults poses a concerning dilemma regarding unified guidelines for antibiotic prescription in line with antibiotic stewardship practices. Thus, there is an urgent need for scientific exploration of such challenges and practical approaches to improve prescription practices in line with the WHO treatment recommendations and to integrate them into national antibiotic prescribing guidelines. Such safe practices will ensure how antibiotics should be used wisely to preserve their efficacy and potency for future generations. To this end, the journal of Antibiotics is seeking contributions from scientists, public health officials, clinicians, and healthcare policy makers that will be published in a Special Issue of the journal, enhancing our knowledge of antibiotic prescription habits in primary care settings and nursing homes.    

Prof. Dr. Reza Nassiri
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antibiotics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• primary care practice
• nursing home practice
• remote practice
• antibiotic prescription habits
• antibiotic resistance in clinical practice
• public health consequences of antibiotic resistance
• antibiotics stewardship practices
• elements of safe practice