ABSTRACT
Background: Medicine shortages are a challenge in upper, lower and middle-income countries, including South Africa. In recent years, community pharmacists in Durban, South Africa, have experienced disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic, flooding, civil unrest and electricity disruptions. Little is known about the impact of these disruptive situations on medicine shortages in community pharmacies. Aim: Exploring the perceptions of community pharmacists and their experiences with medicine shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic and other disruptive situations. Method: Convenience and snowball sampling were used to recruit community pharmacists in Durban, South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in person or via an online video conferencing platform. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were analysed thematically on NVivo 14 software, using the Framework Method. Results:A total of 15 community pharmacists were interviewed. Five major themes emerged from thematic analysis, viz. the perceptions of medicine shortages, the impact of disruptive situations, the consequences of medicine shortages, mitigation strategies; and further suggestions and resources. Perceptions were that shortages were exacerbated by the disruptive situations. Participants perceived a negative financial impact on patients and pharmacies, with out-of-pocket costs affecting the former and loss of income affecting the latter. The mitigation strategies used were contacting stakeholders, medicine substitution and stock management. Conclusion: Community pharmacists felt that medicine shortages required improved communication, collaboration, policies, notification systems and guidelines to mitigate the problem further.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior DisordersABSTRACT
Background: The possible role of health profession students in the prevention and control of large-scale infectious disease outbreaks such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been minimally investigated. Therefore, we aimed to assess the knowledge, preparedness, and attitude of these students towards the COVID-19 outbreak in Africa. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we used convenience sampling to recruit health profession students from institutions associated with the African Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREhealth). We developed a survey in QuestionPro software with questions covering the participants’ socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude, and preparedness towards the COVID-19 outbreak. Data were statistically analysed and the results frequency association between variables was tested Results: Of the 336 students, (88·7%) were undergraduates, with 25·75 (±7·88) years. Most (99·7%) knew that COVID-19 was caused by a virus were transmitted via droplets (97·3%) and close contact with infected persons (85·1%). Several participants declared that they would adhere to preventive measures (92·3%) and claimed their curriculum was adequate to equip them with skills to address infectious disease outbreaks (63·6%). Nursing students were better prepared than other health profession students (p=0·001). Students from the West African regions were more prepared (p=0·001) and aware they could contract COVID-19 if they cared for infected persons (p=0·001). Interpretation: Students are highly knowledgeable about COVID-19, adequately prepared to handle epidemics through their curriculum, have attitude towards their training institutions and government has taken adequate measure address the COVID-19 outbreak.Funding: AFREhealthDeclaration of Interest: We declare no competing interests.Ethical Approval: Approval to collect data was obtained from the ethical committees of the participating institutions. Permission was also obtained from the school heads and written informed consent was obtained from individual participants.