Empiric antibiotic prescription among febrile under-five Children in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers State, Nigeria

Background : More than 97% of febrile infants and young children have self-limiting viral infection and therefore, would not require antibiotics. Over prescription of antibiotics increases antibiotics exposure and development of resistance among patients. There is need to evaluate empiric antibiotic prescription in order to limit its use to only febrile children with bacterial infection. Aim and Objectives : The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of empiric antibiotic prescription among febrile underfive, post neonatal children presenting in the children outpatient clinic of the  University of Port Harcourt teaching hospital. Method : Febrile Children aged 29 days to 0.05). Upper respiratory tract  infection (83.7 %) and diarrhea (55.9%) were significantly associated with empiric antibiotic prescription (P=0.05 and 0.002 respectively). Conclusion : Empiric antibiotic prescription for febrile under-five children is a common practice in UPTH. Physicians should therefore reduce the  frequency of antibiotics prescription in febrile children unless there is clinical evidence of bacterial infection. Key words : Empiric Antibiotics, Fever, post neonatal under-five, Nigeria