Abstract

EVALUATION OF THE ANTIMICROBIAL EFFECT OF EXPIRED ORAL ANTIBIOTICS IN-VITRO.

Dr. Sasha Suliman, Dr. Dalia Abdelazim, Suzan Al Zeer, Yusra Alkamali, Kawthar Alghasham*, Hadel Al Mosfir, Hessa Al Khnfri and Marwa Al Haje

Abstract

Background: In spite of significant risks, as well as non-clinical importance due to loss of potency, stiff penalties against administration of expired antibiotics 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. Objective: To investigate the effect of expiration dates on in vitro bacteriostatic potentials of different oral antibiotics. Materials and methodology: The potency of five antibiotics, both expired and unexpired, Azithromycin, Clarithromycin, Levofloxacin and Cloxicillin and tetracycline were investigated, based on the antimicrobial potentials. The investigation was done by challenging local isolates of different concentrations of S. aureus bacteria; using Disc diffusion technique. Result and disscution: Although the expired antibiotics potency was less than that of the control ones, it was found that the microorganisms challenged with these antibiotics were evaluated as susceptible (According to NCCLS), as the diameter of inhibition zone lies within the susceptible range; Shown the comparison of effectiveness between expired and unexpired Azithromycin against Different bacteria Srcina sp., bacillus sp., staphylococci, salmonella sp and M.phelei, The difference between the expired and control antibiotic is not significant with P value = 0.570.

Keywords: Expired oral antibiotics, potency, tetracycline.