Table 6. Days of antimicrobial therapy by class given to critically ill children.

Antimicrobial class	Total days of treatment	Proportion of total days of PICU admission (%)	Antimicrobial	Total days of treatment *	Proportion of total days of PICU admission (%)
Aminoglycoside	80	10.7	Gentamicin	38	5.1
			Tobramycin	43	5.8
Beta-lactam	431	57.7	Amoxicillin	4	0.5
			Benzylpenicillin	14	1.9
			Cefotaxime	19	2.5
			Ceftazidime	25	3.3
			Ceftolozane - tazobactam	17	2.3
			Ceftriaxone	210	28.1
			Co-amoxiclav	22	2.9
			Flucloxacillin	35	4.7
			Meropenem	53	7.1
			Piperacillin-tazobactam	88	11.8
Fluoroquinolone	31	4.1	Ciprofloxacin	31	4.1
Glycopeptide	37	5.0	Vancomycin	37	5.0
Macrolide	149	19.9	Azithromycin	43	5.8
			Clarithromycin	114	15.3
Other	64	8.6	Chloramphenicol	7	0.9
			Clindamycin	11	1.5
			Co-trimoxazole	12	1.6
			Colomycin	8	1.1
			Doxycycline	1	0.1
			Linezolid	1	0.1
			Metronidazole	10	1.3
			Mupirocin	14	1.9
Total	792			857

PICU: paediatric intensive care unit. *Note – 20 children were prescribed more than one antimicrobial of the same class on the same day leading to a discrepancy between total number of days of treatment by individual antimicrobial and antimicrobial class.