RESUMEN
Background: Acute childhood diarrhea is one of the most common causes of dehydration, and if severe, can potentially lead to death as well. The present study was aimed at evaluating the knowledge and attitudes of community pharmacy professionals towards the management of acute childhood diarrhea and comparing them with their actual practices in Jazan Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (K.S.A). Methods: Simulated patient visits and a cross-sectional survey making use of a 27-item self-report questionnaire were conducted amongst a sample of 303 community pharmacy professionals (51.2 % male and 48.8 % female) with an age range of 25-56 years, between August 1 and December 1, 2021, in Jazan Province, Saudi Arabia. Convenience sampling technique was used for the recruitment of the participants. Results: Significant positive correlations were seen between knowledge score (self-report survey) and practice score (simulated patient visit) regarding patients' history taking (r = 0.65; p < 0.01), drug recommendations (r = 0.71; p < 0.01) and providing information regarding food and fluid intake (r = 0.44; p < 0.01). The alpha coefficients for all the items of the survey instrument were noted to be greater than (or) equal to the 0.70 threshold for almost all sections, hence indicating good reliability and internal consistency of the developed scale. Conclusion: In the present study, even though we observed improved participants' performance during the self report survey, their performance level greatly dropped in actual practice. This warrants for a need for educational programs to improve their actual dispensing practices. The present study has also shown simulated patient visits to be a reliable, simple and a robust method of assessing the actual dispensing practices of community pharmacy professionals.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: It was considered that the resistance of drugs such as carbapenems and cephalosporins against severe or high risk gram-negative bacteria became a tremendous confront. This might be attributed to the little amount of these drugs to be used against the multi-resistant bacteria (MRB). Therefore, Colistin, Fosfomycin, Temocillin, and Rifampicin are antibiotics that have been used as multidrug-resistant bacterial infections in the treatment of some species of bacteria such as Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas species, and Enterobacteriaceae. AIM: the present study is aimed to assess the integrity and efficiency of colistin for treating of the multidrug-resistant bacteria (MDR) especially gram-negative one among critical and non-critical patients in tertiary hospital in Jazan city. Ninety four patients who met the selection criteria and received colistimethate sodium (colistin) in the period between Februarys 2017 and March 2018 were recruited and their charts were reviewed retrospectively. Patients' information, medical conditions, and laboratory data were extracted. All patients received IV colistin, and the majority of the patients showed in their culture reports multidrug-resistant bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii. Patients who had normal renal function received from 2.5 to 5.0 mg of colistin/kg, which was divided in two or three doses intravenously, for duration ranging between 10 and 14 days. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Approximately half of patients (48.93%) were fully recovered, while 19% of them were partially responded to colistin treatment. In the current study it was showed that IV colistin treatment against the multidrug-resistant bacteria (gram-negative bacteria) was strongly related to mild nephrotoxicity in addition to with a proper response as shown only in three of our patients.
