ArticleThe Pan African medical journal2014
Evaluation of bacteriostatic potency of expired oral paediatric antibiotics and implications on infant health.
Article in The Pan African medical journal, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Stability and Efficacy of Medicines Beyond Their Expiration Dates: A Systematic Review.Therapeutic innovation & regulatory science · 2026Pooled it
- Disposal practices for unused and expired medications among outpatients in three healthcare facilities in Ibadan, Nigeria: a cross-sectional analysis.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Mapping socioeconomic factors driving antimicrobial resistance in humans: An umbrella review.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Review
- Medication waste and disposal behaviors among Iranian households: A Cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Efficacy of Expired Antibiotics: A Real Debate in the Context of Repeated Drug Shortages.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Article
- Antimicrobial Usage by Small-Scale Commercial Poultry Farmers in Mid-Western District of Masindi Uganda: Patterns, Public Health Implications, and Antimicrobial Resistance ofVeterinary medicine international · 2023Article
- Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice on Over-the-Counter Drugs Among Pharmacy and Medical Students: A Facility-Based Cross-Sectional Study.Integrated pharmacy research & practice · 2020Article
- Storage of prescription veterinary medicines on UK dairy farms: a cross-sectional study.The Veterinary record · 2019Article
- Global Contributors to Antibiotic Resistance.Journal of global infectious diseasesArticle
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionIn spite of significant risks, as well as non-clinical importance due to loss of potency, stiff penalties against administration of expired medications are still not appropriately enforced by health policy makers in many developing countries, possibly because of little evidence to support that expired medications are hazardous. The purpose of this study therefore, was to investigate the effect of expiration dates on in vitro bacteriostatic potentials of oral paediatric antibiotics.
methodsComparative bacteriostatic potentials of 31 expired and seven corresponding unexpired oral paediatric antibiotics were determined on infantile diarrhoeagenic bacteria, using a modification of agar well-diffusion method.
resultsVerall total percentage in vitro resistance rates against expired and unexpired paediatric antibiotics respectively were - E. coli (≤100% vs. ≤15.9%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (≤100% vs. ≤31.3%), Proteus mirabilis (≤91.7% vs. ≤41.7%) and Staphylococcus aureus (≤100% vs. ≤18.2%). Resistance rates of 45.5-55.8% (sulfamethoxazole + trimethoprim 5), 39.5-63.6% (amoxycillin 6), 46.5-54.5% (cotrimoxazole 7), 37.5-63.6% (ampicillin + cloxacillin 18), and higher resistance rates of ≥75.0-100% were exhibited towards remaining expired antibiotics. Higher total resistance and multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) rates were also recorded against expired antibiotics (45.2-93.5%) compared to unexpired antibiotics (28.6-57.2%), except for few strains of E. coli and Proteus mirabilis. Furthermore, unexpired paediatric antibiotics exhibited wider zones of inhibition towards the test diarrhoeagenic bacteria (≥25.0 mm diameter).
conclusionThis study provided preliminary microbiological results on the appreciable reduction in in vitro bacteriostatic potentials, as well as higher resistance and multiple antibiotic resistance rates among expired oral paediatric antibiotics on infantile diarrhoeagenic bacteria. Apart from less-efficacy, administration of expired antibiotics can lead to increased antibiotic resistance and clinical treatment failure, as well as adverse drug reactions.
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