The world has faced an unprecedented challenge when coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged as a pandemic. Millions of people have contracted the virus and a significant number of them lost their lives, resulting in a tremendous social and economic shock across the globe. Amid the growing burden of the pandemic, there are parallel emergencies that need to be simultaneously tackled: the proliferation of fake medicines, fake news and medication misinformation surrounding COVID-19. Pharmacists are key health professionals with the required skills and training to contribute to the fight against these emergencies. Primarily, they can be a relevant source of accurate and reliable information to the public or other fellow health professionals thereby reducing the spread of COVID-19 medication misinformation. This can be achieved by providing accurate and reliable information based on recommendations given by relevant health authorities and professional associations to make sure the community understand the importance of the message and thus minimise the detrimental consequences of the pandemic. This commentary aims to summarise the existing literature in relation to the promising treatments currently under trial, the perils of falsified medications and medicine-related information and the role of pharmacists in taking a leading role in combating these parallel global emergencies.

IP has led to poor patient outcomes. Although pharmacist-based and computer-aided approaches have shown promising results, there is still room for improvement. Future studies should focus on developing a multifaceted intervention to address the widespread prevalence of IP and associated clinical outcomes in CKD patients.

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive evidence on risk factors for transmission, disease severity and COVID-19 related deaths in Africa.DesignA systematic review has been conducted to synthesise existing evidence on risk factors affecting COVID-19 outcomes across Africa.Data sourcesData were systematically searched from MEDLINE, Scopus, MedRxiv and BioRxiv.Eligibility criteriaStudies for review were included if they were published in English and reported at least one risk factor and/or one health outcome. We included all relevant literature published up until 11 August 2020.Data extraction and synthesisWe performed a systematic narrative synthesis to describe the available studies for each outcome. Data were extracted using a standardised Joanna Briggs Institute data extraction form.ResultsFifteen articles met the inclusion criteria of which four were exclusively on Africa and the remaining 11 papers had a global focus with some data from Africa. Higher rates of infection in Africa are associated with high population density, urbanisation, transport connectivity, high volume of tourism and international trade, and high level of economic and political openness. Limited or poor access to healthcare are also associated with higher COVID-19 infection rates. Older people and individuals with chronic conditions such as HIV, tuberculosis and anaemia experience severe forms COVID-19 leading to hospitalisation and death. Similarly, high burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, high prevalence of tobacco consumption and low levels of expenditure on health and low levels of global health security score contribute to COVID-19 related deaths.ConclusionsDemographic, institutional, ecological, health system and politico-economic factors influenced the spectrum of COVID-19 infection, severity and death. We recommend multidisciplinary and integrated approaches to mitigate the identified factors and strengthen effective prevention strategies.

BackgroundPatients on antiretroviral therapy have higher risk of developing adverse drug reactions (ADRs). The impact of ADRs on treatment adherence, treatment outcomes and future treatment options is quiet considerable. Thus, the purpose of this study was to describe the common self-reported ADRs and their impact on antiretroviral treatment.MethodsCross-sectional study was conducted at antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinic of Gondar University Hospital. Semi-structured interview questionnaire was used to extract self-reported ADRs, socio-demographic, and psycho-social variables. Variables related to antiretroviral medication, laboratory values and treatment changes were obtained from medical charts. Chi-square and odds ratio with 95% confidence interval were used to determine the associations of dependent variables.ResultA total of 384 participants were enrolled. At least one adverse drug reaction was reported by 345 (89.8%) study participants and the mean number of ADRs reported was 3.7 (±0.2). The most frequently reported ADRs were nausea (56.5%) and headache (54.9%). About 114 (31.0%) participants considered antiretroviral therapy to be unsuccessful if ADRs occurred and only 10 (2.6%) decided to skip doses as ADRs were encountered. Based on chart review, treatment was changed for 78 (20.3%) patients and from which 79% were due to documented ADRs (p = 0.00). Among them, CNS symptoms (27.4%) and anemia (16.1%) were responsible for the majority of changes. Around four percent of patients were non-adherent to ART. Non-adhered participants and those on treatment changes were not statistically associated with self-reported ADRs. Only unemployment status (AOR = 1.76 (1.15 - 2.70), p = 0.01) and ADR duration of less than one month (AOR = 1.95 (1.28-2.98), p = 0.001) were significantly associated with self-reported adverse effects of three or more in the multivariate analysis.ConclusionSelf-reported ADRs to antiretroviral therapy are quite common. More of the reactions were of short lasting and their impact on adherence and treatment change were less likely. However, documented ADRs were the most prevalent reasons for ART switch. Moreover, the level of unemployment was a strong predictor of self-reported ADRs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought concurrent challenges. The increased incidence of fake and falsified product distribution is one of these problems with tremendous impact, especially in low-and middle-income countries. Up to a tenth of medicines including antibiotics and antimalarial drugs in the African market are considered falsified. Pandemics make this worse by creating an ecosystem of confusion, distraction, and vulnerability stemming from the pandemic as health systems become more stressed and the workload of individuals increased. These environments create opportunities for substandard and falsified medicines to be more easily introduced into the marketplace by unscrupulous operators. In this work we discuss some of the challenges with fake or falsified product distribution in the context of COVID-19 and proposed strategies to best manage this problem.

The study is a review of existing literature.

Overall, 50 (24%) patients, predominantly men (72%), were readmitted within 30 days of follow-up. MRCI was not significantly associated with 30-day readmission (odds ratio [OR] = 1.27; 95% CI = 0.94-1.73). The median (interquartile range) time to readmission within 12 months was 145 (31-365) days. On a multivariate analysis, a 10-unit increase in MRCI was associated with a shorter time to readmission within 12 months (subdistribution HR = 1.18; 95% CI = 1.01-1.36). Conclusion and Relevance: Medication regimen complexity was not significantly associated with 30-day readmission; however, it was associated with a significantly shorter time to 12-month readmission in older CKD patients. This finding highlights the importance of medication regimen complexity as a potential target for medical interventions to reduce readmission risks.

Tirzepatide is a novel once-a-week dual glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, currently under trial to assess glycemic efficacy and safety in people with type 2 diabetes. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to investigate the efficacy of tirzepatide on glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c, %), fasting serum glucose (mg/dL), and body weight (kg) in patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes (HbA1c > 7.0%). Mean changes for efficacy and proportions (safety) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to provide pooled estimates. A total of four randomized controlled trials, comprising 2783 patients of whom 69.4% (n = 1934) were treated with 5 mg (n = 646), 10 mg (n = 641), or 15 mg (n = 647) of tirzepatide, were compared to the placebo (n = 192) or the selective GLP-1 receptor agonist (n = 523). The pooled analysis showed that tirzepatide treatment resulted in a greater lowering of the HbA1c (–1.94%, 95% CI: –2.02 to –1.87), fasting serum glucose (–54.72 mg/dL, 95% CI: –62.05 to –47.39), and body weight (–8.47, 95% CI: –9.66 to –7.27). We also found that improvement in the HbA1c levels was still maintained at weeks 26 and 40 from the long-term trials. As for safety, only 3% experienced hypoglycemia, and 4% (95% CI: 2 to 6) experienced serious adverse events, while the discontinuation of therapy percentage was 7% (95% CI: 5 to 8). Tirzepatide significantly improved glycemic control and body weight and had an acceptable safety profile, indicating that it is an effective therapeutic option for glucose-lowering in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.