Журнал тропических болезней и общественного здравоохранения

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Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Students of Pharmacy in a Tertiary Institution in Rivers State, Nigeria, Towards the Covid-19 Pandemic

Vivian Chidera Orjiewulu, Omotayo Oluranti Ebong*

Study Background: This study assesses the knowledge, attitude, and practices of undergraduate students in the Faculty of Pharmacy, Madonna University, Elele, Rivers State, Nigeria, towards the COVID-19 pandemic. Pharmacists work in the healthcare system, and they play a significant role in drug information and dissemination, inpatient care, and the proper dispensing of drugs. There is the need to increase their interest and enthusiasm in their profession and public health and disease response, especially on COVID-19 response in the country.

Methods: The survey used the stratified sampling method, and each class formed a stratum. Structured questionnaires were distributed among students in the 2nd to the 5th academic year (200 to 500 study levels) of Pharmacy at Madonna University. Then, simple random sampling was used within each stratum, with each student in the various levels having the same probability of being chosen at any stage during the sampling process. The objective was to improve the precision of the sampling by reducing sampling error. Questionnaires were self-administered to investigate students' demographic data: their ages, sex, marital status, religion, study levels, their knowledge on COVID-19, their attitude to it, and their practices towards the disease. Data were entered into a Microsoft-Excel worksheet and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version V27.

Results: More than half of the respondents had adequate knowledge about COVID-19, on the symptoms, prevention, repositioned drugs, and the age group most affected by the disease. Of the respondents, 96.9% confirmed that COVID-19 started in Wuhan, China, that coronavirus is the cause of the disease (93.8%) and that the elderly was the most severely affected by the disease (78.7%). Respondents (45.7%) agreed to the importance of following the Centre for Disease and Control (CDC) recommendations, such as hand washing and social distancing, self-quarantine for 14 days, and prompt reporting to the Nigeria Centre for Disease and Control as measures for reducing the transmission of COVID-19. Some new drugs suggested for the management of COVID-19 had been known before the pandemic outbreak. As pharmacy students, respondents were requested to provide information on the newly repositioned drugs and their previous use in medicine. Of the respondents, 74% could explain drug repositioning and some recommended drugs, such as Chloroquine (95%), the antimalarial agent, Ritonavir (80%), and Lopinavir (60%), antiviral agents, and Tocilizumab (60%), an immunomodulatory agent. The students would like the government to increase measures to combat COVID-19 disease and provide basic facilities for public and private medical frontline workers, increase awareness programs on the condition, and increase COVID-19 testing centers.

Conclusion: The outbreak of COVID-19 has continued to task the whole healthcare workforce. Pharmacists played a significant role in reducing the burden of the disease during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the country by ensuring the administration of the right drug therapy to patients, creating awareness on the disease, informing on the prevention guidelines, and clarifying misconceptions on the condition. As COVID-19 rages on, with its different variants, it is desirable to stimulate the pharmacy students, early in their profession, on the future roles they will play in the healthcare system and the effort towards eliminating the disease.