EVALUATING THE KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE OF COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS TOWARD HIV INFECTED PATIENTS

EVALUATING THE KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE OF COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS TOWARD HIV INFECTED PATIENTS

ABSTRACT

In most communities, the first level of healthcare visit is usually the community pharmacies hence, has the chance to detect HIV for the provision of early intervention for HIV services. Consequently, if access to HIV care, treatment and prevention services is enhanced at the level of community pharmacies, the burden of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria will be reduced significantly. The study assessed the knowledge of community pharmacists regarding HIV/AIDS and its management and their level of standard precautions practice. Out of 242 community pharmacists in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Federal Capital Territory, a total of 155 registered community pharmacists who had valid practicing license were randomly selected. A questionnaire specifically designed for this study was self-administered to these participants. SPSS was used for the analysis, a P-value of less than 0.05 was regarded as significant and Chi-square tests were applied for inferential analysis. Within the 155 community pharmacists sampled, complete response were obtained from 104 (67%) community pharmacists. The mean age of the participants was 44.3 years (SD ± 2.47). There were 72.1% males. 80.8% of the participants had only Bachelor of Pharmacy degree, 79.8% of participants reported correctly that HIV can be transmitted through with blood and semen and this was significantly associated with level of education (p = 0.002). Most of the participants (92.3%) did not know the HIV transmission rate from mother to child in the deficiency of antiretroviral drugs in developing countries and only 37.8% of community pharmacists keep stock of antiretroviral drugs for post exposure prophylaxis. Many of the participants (83.0%) had good knowledge of the concept of standard precaution and 76.0% knew the conditions of which standard precautions should be practiced. 57.5% of the participants wash their hands with soap and water always after any direct contact with patients, 63.2% recap used needles after giving injections or drawing blood from the patients. Only 26.9% had been vaccinated against Hepatitis B. The finding of this study revealed that the knowledge and practice of community pharmacists in HIV/AIDS is relatively poor especially mother–to-child transmission. In as much as the knowledge of community pharmacists on standard precaution was good, there were paucities in their practice of standard precaution especially in the area of handling and disposal of used needles, poor availability of HIV post exposure prophylaxis drugs and vaccination against Hepatitis B. Management of HIV/AIDS should be integrated into the curriculum for continuing professional development for pharmacists. The implementation of adherence to the principles of standard precaution through consistent monitoring and supervision is highly recommended.

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