Prospective Study of Adverse Drug Reaction of Anti-Infective Agents in Paediatric Patients.

ADR is any undesirable effect of drug beyond its anticipated therapeutics occurring during clinical use. The WHO defines an ADR as ''any response to a drug which is noxious and unintended, and which occurs at doses normally used in man for prophylaxis diagnosis or therapy of disease, or for the modification of physiologic function''. Thus this definition excludes overdose [either accidental or intentional], drug abuse, and treatment failure and drug administration errors.Adverse drug reactions are one of the drug related problems in the hospital setting and is a challenge for the ensuring drug safety. Antibiotics comprise the major volume of the drug family and inpatient prescriptions, and are the most irrationally prescribed drug class. So that implementation of antibiotic guidelines form the hospital scenario and strict adherence should be ensured to promote their rational use in children. The health system should promote the spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions, proper documentation and periodic reporting to regional pharmacovigilance centers to ensure drug safety.The most commonly prescribed drugs are those most often implicated in ADRs in children. Penicillins, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides etc. are the commonly prescribed class of anti-infective agents in paediatric department, during the study period. The antibiotic class mostly affected with ADRs was found to be penicillins followed by cephalosporins, spontaneous reporting of Adverse Drug Reaction is farely good in our hospital setting. ADRs may increase costs of patient care and may mimic disease, resulting in unnecessary investigations and delay in treatment. Active involvement of a well trained clinical pharmacist for detecting the Adverse Drug Reaction and delivering the awareness classes for the healthcare professionals regarding the need of reporting ADRs, particularly those that are serious or rare