EC Clinical and Medical Case Reports

Pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professionals to the general public who provide healthcare services during pandemic conditions including patients care services, guiding patients, and minimizing the patient’s health risk. This study aims to investigate pharmacists’ awareness; their behavior regards the management of the coronavirus pandemic. A survey comprising several questions for the pharmacists at private pharmacies in Benghazi-Libya included items to collect demographic data. The rest of the questions were about the pharmacist's education about COVID-19, to evaluate the levels of knowledge and attitude regarding COVID-19 among the pharmacists. The SPSS program (Statistical package for social science students, version 2012) analyzed data collected from the questionnaire. Most of the participants believed that they got enough education previously about pandemics. The majority of the pharmacists who participated in this study appear to have a major role in the management of pandemics through their pharmacies. This study elucidates that, better awareness is related to the higher educational level of the pharmacist, which is a satisfactory and expected finding.

Keywords: Pharmacists; Coronavirus; Awareness; Education; Pandemic

1. Xu J., et al. “Systematic comparison of two animal-to-human transmitted human coronaviruses: SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV”. Viruses2 (2020): 244.
2. Velavan TP and Meyer CG. “The COVID-19 epidemic”. Tropical Medicine and International Health3 (2020): 278-280.
3. Yuki K., et al. “COVID-19 pathophysiology: A review”. Clinical Immunology 215 (2020): 108427.
4. Xu J., et al. “Systematic comparison of two animal-to-human transmitted human coronaviruses: SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV”. Viruses 2 (2020): 244.
5. Gao YD., et al. “Risk factors for severe and critically ill COVID‐19 patients: a review”. Allergy2 (2021): 428-455.
6. Del Rio C., et al. “Winter of Omicron-the evolving COVID-19 pandemic”. Journal of the American Medical Association4 (2022): 319-320.
7. Stasi C., et al. “Treatment for COVID-19: An overview”. European Journal of Pharmacology 889 (2020): 173644.
8. Chenchula S., et al. “Current evidence on efficacy of COVID-19 booster dose vaccination against the Omicron variant: a systematic review”. Journal of Medical Virology 7 (2022): 2969- 2976.
9. Meng L., et al. “Roles of the Chinese clinical pharmacist during the COVID-19 pandemic”. Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy5 (2020): 866-868.
10. Dan Kambayashi., et al. “Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding COVID-19 among pharmacists partnering with community residents: A national survey in Japan”. PLoS One10 (2021): e0258805.
11. Yimenu DK., et al. “COVID-19: What should health professionals know? Assessment of Knowledge, attitude, and practice of community pharmacists in a developing country”. SAGE Open Medicine 8 (2020): 2050312120973498.
12. Mazrouei N., et al. “The evolving role of community pharmacists during COVID-19 in the UAE; assessing preparedness and knowledge”. International Journal of Pharmacy Practice 2 (2021): 137-144.
13. Shafiee Hanjani L., et al. “A scoping review of the use and impact of telehealth medication reviews”. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy 8 (2020): 1140-1153.
14. Dai Y., et al. “Psychological impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak on healthcare workers in China”. MedRxiv (2020).
15. Lange M., et al. “Impact on mental health of the COVID-19 outbreak among community pharmacists during the sanitary lockdown period”. Annales Pharmaceutiques Françaises6 (2020): 459-463.
16. Gierdys W. “Coronavirus. Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical Technicians on the Front Line. What Does Their Job Look Like Now? [in Polish: Koronawirus. Farmaceuci I Technicy Farmaceutyczni na Pierwszej Linii Frontu. Jak Wygląda Teraz Ich Praca?] Magazyn Aptekarski (2020).
17. Ashiru-Oredope D., et al. “Needs assessment and impact of COVID-19 on pharmacy professionals in 31 commonwealth countries”. Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice 1 (2020): 72.
18. Oh TK., et al. “Risk of psychological sequelae among coronavirus disease-2019 survivors: A nationwide cohort study in South Korea”. Depression and Anxiety2 (2021): 247-254.
19. Arabi YM., et al. “Corticosteroid therapy for critically ill patients with Middle East respiratory syndrome”. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 6 (2018): 757-767.
20. World Health Organization. Novel coronavirus (2019-NCoV) situation report 36. Geneva: world health organization (2020).
21. Zhang N., et al. “Risk perception, anxiety, and depression among hospital pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating effect of positive and negative affect”. Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology 16 (2022).