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To start, antibiotics, also known as antibacterial, are medications that destroy or slow down the growth of bacteria. They include a range of powerful drugs and are used to treat diseases caused by bacteria. Antibiotics cannot treat viral infections, such as cold, flu, and most coughs. Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change in some way that reduces or eliminates the effectiveness of drugs, chemicals, or other agents designed to cure or prevent infections. The bacteria survive and continue to multiply causing more harm. Frequent and inappropriate

Objectives This study was conducted to assess the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) program in Sudan in terms of the expenditure trends over the period of 5 years (2006 and 2010), their value of usage and the pattern of medicines expenditure. Methods The standard tools for analysing aggregate medicine data (ABC and VEN) analysis were used. The total value of consumption was calculated by multiplying quantities by unit cost, and the total values sorted in descending order. The percentage of total value for each item was calculated. Similarly, for Vital, Essential and Non-essential (VEN) analysis, the NHIF medicine lists (2006 and 2007) were classified as vital, essential or non-essential medicines (based on explanatory statement for physician, medical doctors and pharmacists). Key findings ABC analysis showed that small number of items (n = 80, 16.98%) in Class A account for large proportion of the fund (70.19%), whereas large number of items (n = 288, 61.15%) of Class C account only for 9.92% of the total fund. Similarly, the VEN analysis showed that small number of items (n = 11, 2.34%) of Class V account for 5.46%, whereas Class N consists of 212 (45.01%) items that account for 26.43% of the total fund. The medicine class that accounted for the highest expenditure were medicines related to general anti-infectives for systemic use (40.37%) and it made the largest contribution to increases in the total medicine expenditure (48.59%).Conclusions The findings reveal that relatively small number of items accounts for most of the value of the supply fund and non-essential items represent around half of number of NHIF items and account for around quarter of the total fund.

Introduction Pharmacists and pharmaceutical care services are among the most important tools in providing health services to the society. Pharmacists as the key players in presenting health services, critically impact on the health of the society and if they suffer low job satisfaction, their dissatisfaction may relatively threaten health in the society. This study was conducted to determine Sudanese community pharmacists’ job satisfaction and additionally, some causes of dissatisfaction among community pharmacists and their impact on providing pharmaceutical care services have been evaluated. Method The questionnaire was designed after reviewing relevant Literature in addition, The Job Satisfaction survey was used to measure the level of community pharmacists’ satisfaction with their current jobs, and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was used to evaluate emotional experience and awareness. Results and Discussion Generally low scores of job satisfaction were concluded among pharmacists while most of them were highly satisfied with being pharmacist. Conclusion Low levels of job satisfaction which were found among Sudanese community pharmacists could be considered as a deficiency of health system in Sudan. Fortunately, inherent interest in the pharmacy profession found among Sudanese pharmacists is an optimistic point at which policy-makers could develop their modifying policies. Health policy-makers must endeavor to take other steps to issue solutions for this current problem.

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Objectives: The objective of this study is to analyze the annual medicines imported by private sector for the period between 2012 and 2015 with the help of priority system based on ABC-VEN matrix analysis and therapeutic category analysis.Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted. The Always, Better, and Control (ABC) analysis based on drug expenditure and Vital, Essential, and Nonessential (VEN) analysis based on the criticality of the drugs was performed for annual importation in 2015.Results: Using ABC analysis, we found that 47 items (9.2%) accounted for 70% of the budget (class A), whereas a larger numbers of items (344; 67.2%) accounted for only 10% of the importation costs (class C). A moderate number of items (120; 23.5%) comprised 20% of the annual medicine importation value (class B). VEN analysis revealed that 89 items (17.4%) in the vital category constituted 41.6% of the importation value, whereas 349 (68.3%) grouped as essential constituted 45.1% of the value, and 73 (14.2%) of the items considered as nonessential medicines consumed only 13.3% of the total medicines imported in 2015. From the resultant ABC-VEN coupled matrix, three categories were created I, II and III. Conclusion:In view of limited resources, it is important that the existing resources should be utilized appropriately. This study identified a range of suggestions for better medication importation. The ABC and VEN analyses along with the therapeutic category analysis technique are convenient, systematic, and replicable methods and should be adopted for optimization and prioritization of resources.

Introduction In Sudan, the number of end‐stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients receiving hemodialysis (HD) is growing. Patients and their families incur a high out‐of‐pocket expenditure (OOPE), given that HD treatment is expensive. There are limited data about OOP spending on HD in the country. This study aims to explore patients' OOP expense on direct medical and nonmedical goods and services and to which extent they can be predicted from sociodemographic characteristics, health insurance status, comorbidity, and accommodation change. Methods This is descriptive a cross‐sectional study conducted in Ibn Sina Hospital. One hundred and thirty patients undergo regular HD were randomly selected. Findings Among the study participants (130), the median of the overall total OOP (direct medical and direct nonmedical) spending per patients per year was found to be US$ 3859.1 (interquartile range [IQR]: 2298.1–6261.1). As for the medians OOP expenditure on direct medical and nonmedical costs, they were found to be US$ 2327.6 (IQR: 1421.5–3804.8) and US$ 1096 (IQR: 715.2–2345.2), respectively. The direct medical expenditure (355,586 US$) accounted for 60% of the overall total expenses. Discussion Medications and investigations were the primary drivers of direct medical spending. Higher OOPE rates were found among those with one or more of these factors; uninsured patients, patient with comorbidity, female gender, and over 40 years aged. The multivariate analysis showed that the significant predictors of direct medical expenditure were health insurance and comorbid conditions, where as the predictors for direct nonmedical expenditure were accommodation change and gender. This study results in a better understanding of OOP spending on direct medical and nonmedical services and its associated predictors among HD patients within the context of Sudan. Further research is needed in this area.

Objectives To assess the main factors that contributed to the increase in medicine expenditure of the National Health Insurance Fund in Sudan in the period 2006–2010. Methods A time‐series decomposition analysis was adopted for pharmaceutical expenditure increases characterized by trends and seasonality (time‐series data per quarter). The change in real spending is decomposed into three components: price, quantity and residual. The contributions of these components towards pharmaceutical expenditure were then determined by means of chained price and quantity indexes. Key findings The consumer price index rose by about 195.56% over the period of the study. The real spending index shows that real medicine expenditures increased by 66.30% during the period 2006–2010. Relative prices increased by 6.73%; Quantity increased by 91.04%, and the residual contribution decreased by 18.44%. Conclusion Price factors, quantity and residual are significant determinants of expenditure for the National Health Insurance Fund in Sudan. The largest contribution to the increase in real medicine expenditure was made by the quantity factor.