Journal Retracts Study on Antibiotic Medication Errors in Pediatric Patients

Discover Medicine has retracted a 2024 study that examined medication errors in antibiotic drugs given to pediatric inpatients with chest infections in the pediatric ward of a government hospital in a developing country. The retraction notice was published on 12 October 2026, nearly two years after the original article appeared on 19 December 2024.

According to the retraction notice, the Editor retracted the article due to ethical aspects of the study. Concerns were raised regarding whether appropriate institutional and ethical approvals had been obtained.

The notice also states that concerns remain regarding the use and confidentiality of patient data. In addition, the reported methodology was judged insufficient to ensure reproducibility, meaning that other researchers could not reliably repeat the study based on the description provided in the article.

A further issue concerned the article’s reference to the “Declaration of Yemen”, for which no supporting documentation could be identified. The authors did not provide a satisfactory explanation for these concerns, according to the notice.

The Editor concluded that the journal no longer has confidence in the research presented in the work. The retraction notice also records that the authors, Baraah Alsaqqaf and Khaled Alakhali, have not responded to any correspondence from the Editor about the retraction.

The original article had been published in Discover Medicine in December 2024 as a prospective, cross-sectional study of antibiotic medication errors among children hospitalized with chest infections.

Subject of Research: Retraction of a cross-sectional study on antibiotic medication errors in pediatric hospital patients

Article Title: Retraction Note: Medication errors and their related aspects in antibiotic drugs used in pediatric inpatients with chest infections in the pediatric ward of a government hospital in a developing country: a prospective, cross-sectional study

Article References: Alsaqqaf, B., & Alakhali, K. (2026). Retraction Note: Medication errors and their related aspects in antibiotic drugs used in pediatric inpatients with chest infections in the pediatric ward of a government hospital in a developing country: a prospective, cross-sectional study. Discover Medicine, 3(1), Article 152. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44337-026-00714-5

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44337-026-00714-5

Keywords: retraction, Discover Medicine, medication errors, antibiotics, pediatric patients, research ethics, informed consent, patient data confidentiality, reproducibility, chest infections, hospital ward, Note