Antibiotic treatment of pediatric infections in primary healthcare setting: evaluation and comparison of 80 national treatment guidelines with the WHO AWaRe book recommendations.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Antibiotic recommendations for pediatric infections in national standard treatment guidelines (STGs) vary widely, particularly for Access and Watch antibiotics. The WHO AWaRe book recommends Access antibiotics as first-line treatment for over 80% of common infections managed in primary healthcare. This study aims to evaluate the agreement between first and second-line antibiotics in national STGs with AWaRe book recommendations and the inclusion of these antibiotics in Essential Medicine Lists (EMLs).

Methods

National STGs of 80 countries were systematically collected from databases and grey literature (up to May 2025). Antibiotic recommendations for the ten most common primary healthcare infections in children were compared with the WHO AWaRe book (2022), the WHO

SUBMITTER: Dona D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12396473 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature