{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,16]],"date-time":"2026-05-16T03:47:03Z","timestamp":1778903223600,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Journal of Infection in Developing Countries","issue":"04","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,30]],"date-time":"2024-04-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1714435200000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004564","name":"Ministarstvo Prosvete, Nauke i Tehnolo\u0161kog Razvoja","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["451-03-47\/2023-01\/ 200161"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["451-03-47\/2023-01\/ 200161"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004564","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J Infect Dev Ctries"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affected antibiotic usage worldwide. However, there is limited data from Serbia. Dispensing of oral antibiotics in Serbian pharmacies was analyzed to calculate monthly and yearly changes between 2018-2021, and to explore immediate and long-term effects of COVID-19 on antibiotic dispensing during this period.\nMethodology: The number of antibiotic packages dispensed from pharmacies during the study period was analyzed with a Chi-square test to assess the average change in annual dispensing, and an interrupted time-series analysis was used to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on antibiotic dispensing. The data from 2018-2021 were retrieved from the database of a large community pharmacy chain in Serbia.\nResults: The average number of antibiotic packages dispensed per day and per pharmacy was higher in 2021 compared to 2018 by one package. However, the dispensing of macrolides increased significantly; 17.7% (2018) vs. 22.5% (2021) (p &lt; 0.05). In general, an increase in antibiotic dispensing was detected during COVID-19 for total antibiotics (16.4%), Watch antibiotics (44.8%), third-generation cephalosporins (80.4%), macrolides (45.5%) and azithromycin (83.7%). However, the immediate effect of COVID-19 was a decrease in the dispensing of Watch antibiotics, penicillin, and third-generation cephalosporins (p &lt; 0.05); and a notable long-term COVID-19 effect was an increase in the dispensing of azithromycin (p &lt; 0.05).\nConclusions: In spite of a relatively stable trend of total antibiotic dispensing before and during COVID-19 pandemic, the use of Watch antibiotics, third-generation cephalosporins, and macrolides (particularly azithromycin) showed an increasing trend in dispensing that should be optimized.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3855\/jidc.19255","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,10]],"date-time":"2024-05-10T09:33:20Z","timestamp":1715333600000},"page":"504-512","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Immediate and long-term effects of COVID-19 on antibiotic dispensing: increasing use of Watch antibiotics"],"prefix":"10.3855","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2974-4535","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tanja","family":"Tomic","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Martin","family":"Henman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ivana","family":"Tadic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jelena","family":"Antic Stankovic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0684-359X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Milena","family":"Santric Milicevic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zoran","family":"Bukumiric","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dragana","family":"Lakic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marina","family":"Odalovic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"2222","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,30]]},"container-title":["The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.jidc.org\/index.php\/journal\/article\/download\/19255\/3317","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.jidc.org\/index.php\/journal\/article\/download\/19255\/3317","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,10]],"date-time":"2024-05-10T09:33:22Z","timestamp":1715333602000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.jidc.org\/index.php\/journal\/article\/view\/19255"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,30]]},"references-count":0,"journal-issue":{"issue":"04","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,30]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3855\/jidc.19255","relation":{},"ISSN":["1972-2680"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1972-2680","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,30]]}}}