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Table 4 Comparison of medicines prescription patterns across three African Countries

From: Implications of the South African National Drug Policy on prescribing patterns: a case study of the Limpopo province

WHO prescribing indicator

South Africa Oct–Dec 2018*

Ethiopia Jan 2017–June 2019**

Eritrea Sept 2017–Jan 2018***

The average number of medicines per encounter

4.3

1.7

1.8

% Medicines prescribed by generic name

43%

95.6%

94.9%

% Encounters with an antibiotic prescribed

28%

58.2%

54.5%

% Encounters with an injection prescribed

8%

15.9%

6.6%

% Medicines prescribed from an essential medicines list or formulary

90%

93.9%

94.8%

  1. *Study values, **Tassew et al. 2021[11], ***Siele et al. 2022[10]