Prescribing patterns of antivirals for systemic use during 2019 in a South African private healthcare setting

ABSTRACT

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa in 2020 had an impact on the number of annual influenza cases. Investigating the prescribing patterns of antiviral products before the pandemic will provide baseline information for further comparative studies during and after the pandemic. Primary aim: To analyse the prescribing patterns of antiviral products for systemic use during the year before the Covid-19 pandemic started. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional drug utilisation study on a section of the private healthcare system in South Africa for 2019 was conducted. Products in Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) subgroup J05 (antivirals for systemic use) were analysed. Results: A total of 117984 antiviral products for systemic use were prescribed to 16388 patients. Antivirals for the treatment of HIV infections (combinations) (J05AR) accounted for 84.55% of products, followed by non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (J05AG) and protease inhibitors (3.12%). Remdesivir was not available in 2019. Prescribing trends over the 12 months followed the same pattern for all subclasses of J05, except for oseltamivir (J05AH02). The number of prescriptions for oseltamivir were higher from May to September, peaking in June 2019. In Southern Africa, the influenza season typically starts in May/June and continues into August/September. This coincided with the period in which oseltamivir was prescribed. Conclusion: The prescribing of systemic antiretroviral products remained stable during 2019, except for oseltamivir which peaked during the annual influenza season. The study serves as a baseline to compare 2020 prescription patterns with, during which oseltamivir was used as an empiric treatment for Covid-19.