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Background

There has been an increase in antibiotic consumption in the last decades in lower income countries, still, it is insufficient to meet everyone’s needs. Ensuring access to them is essential to lower the burden of disease and mortality, as well as to accomplish the Sustainable Developmental Goals. However, this consumption needs to be responsible to avoid faster spreading of antibiotic resistances. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has threatened the healthcare systems everywhere, both directly and indirectly. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research on how it has impacted antibiotics’ stock. 

Methods

This study used secondary data of a cross-sectional cohort design to follow the impact of the pandemic on the stock of three commonly used antibiotics in healthcare facilities of Uganda. The data was compared between three time periods: before the pandemic started (January 2019-February 2020), during the first months of the pandemic and coinciding with the harshest restrictions (March 2020-May 2020), and the second period of the pandemic (June 2020-December 2020).

Results

An increase in stock of the antibiotics was observed as the restrictions hardened, followed by a decrease when they were lifted. Likewise, this rise happened both in the consumption and arrival of antibiotics. Stratified analysis was preformed grouping by healthcare level and by region, seeing that the strongest change happened in facilities at level II and III in the Eastern region of Uganda.

Conclusions 

This suggests that the pandemic influenced the antibiotics stocks and consumption. Further research needs to be done to better understand this effect.