Antimicrobial Consumption and Resistance of Restricted Antibiotics in a Level III Government Hospital.

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to determine the antibiotic consumption of restricted antibiotics and to correlate this with resistance rate.

Methods: A retrospective review of pharmacy dispensing records was conducted in the adult internal medicine wards of a tertiary level teaching hospital in the Philippines between March 2019 to February 2020. Antibiotic consumption was determined using Defined Daily Dose (DDD) per 1000 patient-days (PD).

Essential Medicines in Universal Health Coverage: A Scoping Review of Public Health Law Interventions and How They Are Measured in Five Middle-Income Countries.

Very few studies exist of legal interventions (national laws) for essential medicines as part of universal health coverage in middle-income countries, or how the effect of these laws is measured. This study aims to critically assess whether laws related to universal health coverage use five objectives of public health law to promote medicines affordability and financing, and to understand how access to medicines achieved through these laws is measured. This comparative case study of five middle-income countries (Ecuador, Ghana, Philippines, South Africa, Ukraine) uses a public health law framework to guide the content analysis of national laws and the scoping review of empirical evidence for measuring access to medicines.

Medicines management in the Philippine public sector during the response to Haiyan.

Introduction: Health service delivery in the Philippines is constantly challenged by disasters and emergencies. This descriptive study documented existing policies for medicines management in the Philippines and then assessed these in the public sector response post-Haiyan.

Method: We used desk a review of existing laws, regulations and related issuances and a series of interviews of key informants from various national and local health agencies.