A Public Health Lens on Antibiotic Use: From Prescription to Resistance for ENT Infections
A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382). This special issue belongs to the section "Antibiotics Use and Antimicrobial Stewardship".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 1382
Special Issue Editors
Interests: public health; global health; health policy; health diplomacy; health equity; vulnerable populations; refugees and migrants health
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: otorhinolaryngology; clinical immunology and inflammatory disease modulation; public health and vaccinology; personalized and precision medicine
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue, titled "A Public Health Lens on Antibiotic Use: From Prescription to Resistance for ENT Infections", explores the complex relationship between antibiotic prescribing practices and the escalating threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the context of ear, nose, and throat (ENT) infections. These conditions remain among the most common reasons for outpatient antibiotic prescriptions, frequently involving viral pathogens where antibiotics offer limited or no clinical benefit. Overprescription, misdiagnosis, and patient expectations continue to drive inappropriate use, fueling a public health crisis with both local and global implications.
This Special Issue seeks to bridge clinical decision-making with public health policy by focusing on ENT infections as a critical, yet often under-addressed, frontline in the fight against AMR. Emphasis is placed on the need for evidence-based prescribing guidelines, diagnostic stewardship, patient-centered education, and comprehensive surveillance systems. Contributions explore prescribing behaviors, resistance patterns, and the role of public health interventions such as antimicrobial stewardship programs tailored to the ENT setting.
Importantly, this Special Issue also foregrounds the dimensions of health equity and global health. The burden of antibiotic misuse and resistance is not distributed equally: low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face disproportionate challenges due to limited access to diagnostics, unregulated antibiotic distribution, and insufficient healthcare infrastructure. Even within high-income countries, socioeconomic and geographic disparities influence healthcare access, health literacy, and treatment quality, which in turn affect antibiotic use and outcomes.
Addressing these disparities is critical to achieving the goals of the World Health Organization’s Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, which calls for optimized antimicrobial use in all sectors and equitable access to effective therapies globally. Moreover, reducing AMR aligns with broader objectives under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 3.8, which aims to ensure universal health coverage, and SDG 3.d, which targets strengthened capacities for early warning and response to global health risks.
By addressing systemic and structural inequities, this Special Issue promotes context-sensitive, inclusive strategies that safeguard antibiotic efficacy while ensuring just and effective care for all populations. Global cooperation remains essential to develop and disseminate best practices that can be adapted across diverse health systems.
Through this multidisciplinary lens, we aim to inform not only practitioners and researchers but also policymakers and public health leaders, thereby advancing integrated solutions that support sustainable antibiotic use, reduce resistance risks, and improve population health outcomes worldwide.
Dr. Palmira Immordino
Dr. Angelo Immordino
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antibiotics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- antibiotic resistance
- ENT infections
- public health
- prescribing practices
- overuse of antibiotics
- diagnostic stewardship
- patient education
- otolaryngology
- infection control
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