BACKGROUND/AIMS

As the bacterial resistance to antibiotics became one of the major problems in today’s world, a solution to this problem is possible through a common awareness of the doctor who prescribes antibiotics, the pharmacist who sells them, and the patient who consumes them. The aim of this study was to determine the sales ratio of non-prescription antibiotics in pharmacies, which is the most common category of the sold antibiotic group according to the pharmacists’ records due to the received prescriptions, and to detect the relationship between the resources of drug information and the sociodemographic data.

MATERIAL and METHODS

A total of 84 pharmacies out of 168 pharmacies located in the Northern Cyprus were included in the study with a 50% stratified systematic sampling.

RESULTS

This study was carried out in the first and the second trimester of 2014 (01 January-30 June), and the daily sale of antibiotics was found to be 41.5%. In addition, the most purchased antibiotics were discovered to be the penicillin with 76.2%, and on the other hand, the disease for which antibiotics were most commonly prescribed was found to be the upper respiratory tract infection with 86.9%. When the level of self-awareness of the pharmacists was examined, it was discovered that they were highly knowledgeable about drug indications, as well as their side effects.

CONCLUSION

The rate of the use and sale of non-prescribed antibiotics in the Northern Cyprus has been found to be at a higher level compared to the rates in many developed countries. According to the new legislation for 2016, the rate of the use and sale of non-prescribed antibiotics is expected to be decreasing in the future.

Keywords: Community pharmacist, sources of drug information, knowledge of drugs, Cyprus