Antibiotic prescription in primary care

Prescription of antibiotics at the point of care is very high in Southeast Asia. Simple tests can help health workers determine which patients actually need antibiotics, but we need to ensure that the benefits and advantages are clearly explained. In the long term, those tests could represent a sustainable alternative to the massive prescription of antibiotics in developing countries.

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I'm an infectious disease specialist, with extensive experience in the design and management of clinical trials in resource-poor settings.

My focus is on the diagnosis and therapeutic strategies of malarial and non-malarial pathogens causing fever. I recently evaluated a point-of-care test (POCT) using C-reactive protein (CRP), to reduce antibiotic prescription among febrile children and adults attending the first lines of care, both in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

The global objective is to alleviate the burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), through better management of febrile patients.

These evaluations rely on a variety of approaches ranging from economic and epidemiological modelling through laboratory investigations to clinical trials and qualitative research.

Our ultimate aim is to provide policymakers with pragmatic and context-specific assessments of the impact of new interventions if implemented in routine care.