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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Ibnosina Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences 2021; 13(04): 173-182
DOI: 10.4103/ijmbs.ijmbs_58_21
Review Article

Pharmacy practice in COVID-19 from a Middle Eastern and African perspective: A narrative review

Haider Al-Saffar
1   Community Pharmacy, Greater Manchester
2   Foxland Dental Surgery, Gatley, Stockport, United Kingdom
,
Rasha Aljazzar
3   Independent Researcher, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
,
Amina Al-Saffar
1   Community Pharmacy, Greater Manchester
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had a worldwide impact on all aspects of life and primarily on clinical practice involving all health-care professionals. Pharmacists are at the forefront of all clinical facilities in hospitals and the community. We aimed to provide a narrative overview of the global literature on the impact of COVID-19 changing roles and pharmacists' contribution to the overall clinical care during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a narrative, nonsystematic review of the international literature from a single major medical online database, PubMed, between February 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021. The relevant articles were narrated in a concise thematic account. During the COVID-19 pandemic, pharmacists had to serve their responsibilities alongside other activities while the entire world was fighting an invisible virus. However, it was much more complicated than before because the novel coronavirus is intractable. There was no vaccine or established therapeutic guidelines when it manifested suddenly. As part of an interdisciplinary team, community pharmacists may carry out their responsibilities and play an essential role in disease control and management. However, they may need to be appropriately prepared, trained, and equipped to deal with pandemic and postpandemic situations.

Key-words:

Community pharmacists - COVID-19 - cross-sectional survey - education - extended roles - health care - health-care roles - hospital pharmacists - pandemic - pharmacy practice - prevention - surveys

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.




Publication History

Received: 02 August 2021

Accepted: 25 November 2021

Article published online:
14 July 2022

© 2021. The Libyan Authority of Scientific Research and Technologyand the Libyan Biotechnology Research Center. All rights reserved. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License,permitting copying and reproductionso long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, oradapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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