RESUMEN
To ascertain the pattern of antimicrobial use and to assess its appropriateness a 4-month prospective study was conducted from January through April 1998 in paediatric wards of five selected medical college hospitals in Bangladesh. The hospitals were selected by simple random technique. Every patient in the paediatric wards of the selected hospitals who was being treated with antimicrobials during the data collection period was considered for the study. The treatment charts of 2171 admitted paediatric patients were reviewed. Pneumonia and diarrhoea were the two most common infectious diseases among them. The most commonly used antimicrobials were ampicillin, gentamicin, amoxicillin, cloxacillin and ceftriaxone. The majority of the admitted paediatric patients (56.1%) included in this study received two or more antimicrobials in combination for their treatment. The percentages of appropriate antimicrobial treatment of pneumonia, and diarrhoea were 57.1% and 67.8% respectively across the hospitals. The evident of high percentages of inappropriate antimicrobial treatment for the most common infectious diseases suggested the need for intervention to improve antimicrobial use in hospitals.