Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Feb;8(2):e009928.
doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2022-009928.

The role of community pharmacies in early detection of suspected COVID-19 cases in 2020: lessons from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Affiliations

The role of community pharmacies in early detection of suspected COVID-19 cases in 2020: lessons from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Hussein Mohamed et al. BMJ Glob Health. 2023 Feb.

Abstract

Tanzania reported its first COVID-19 case on 16 March 2020. We conducted event-based surveillance of COVID-19 suspect cases among pharmacy clients presenting with respiratory symptoms and influenza-like illness to increase early and rapid detection of COVID-19 cases and mitigate transmission. We conveniently sampled 103 pharmacies from Dar es Salaam, the epicentre for the COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania at the time. Between 23 April 2020 and 18 May 2020, 67% of the pharmacies (69/103) reported an observed increase in the number of clients presenting with respiratory symptoms and influenza-like illness compared with the 1 month before the COVID-19 outbreak. In the 1-month surveillance period, the participating pharmacies recorded 75 alerts of COVID-19 suspect cases and referred all suspected COVID-19 cases to rapid response teams for additional symptomatic screening and SARS-CoV-2 testing. A key implementation challenge was that some clients identified as COVID-19 suspected cases were hesitant to provide follow-up information for linkage to rapid response teams. Addressing concerns among drug dispensers in the participating pharmacies and informing them of the benefits of the surveillance activity were important implementation components. Our approach demonstrates the overall feasibility of rapidly implementing an event-based surveillance system for an emerging health threat through an existing network of pharmacies within the community. The approach and tools used in this surveillance activity could be adapted in similar settings to detect and generate alerts of disease outbreaks in the community that other surveillance systems may otherwise miss.

Keywords: COVID-19; Epidemiology; Health policy; Health services research; Health systems.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Pharmacy surveillance data flow diagram.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Bar chart showing (A) symptoms reported and (B) medications sought commonly sought by clients visiting pharmacy before and during the COVID-19 outbreak in Dar es Salaam (N=103).
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) Proportion of COVID-19 suspect cases reported from pharmacies in each ward (N=73). (B)Proportion of commonly reported symptoms among COVID-19 suspect cases reported from pharmacies(N=75).
Figure 4
Figure 4
(A) Type of personal protective equipment(N=103). (B) Type of hand hygiene facilities used in pharmacies(N=103).

References

    1. (MoHCDGEC) MoHCDGEaC . First case of COVID-19 in Tanzania, 2020. Available: http://www.moh.go.tz/en/education-clips?download=417:kuwepo-kwa-mgonjwa-...
    1. World Health Organization . Taxonomy and glossary of public health and social measures that may be implemented to limit the spread of COVID-19. Available: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/documents/phsm/20200923-phms-who...
    1. Haider N, Osman AY, Gadzekpo A, et al. . Lockdown measures in response to COVID-19 in nine sub-Saharan African countries. BMJ Glob Health 2020;5:e003319. 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003319 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mboya IB, Ngocho JS, Mgongo M, et al. . Community engagement in COVID-19 prevention: experiences from Kilimanjaro region, Northern Tanzania. Pan Afr Med J 2020;35:146. 10.11604/pamj.supp.2020.35.2.24473 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Feng S, Shen C, Xia N, et al. . Rational use of face masks in the COVID-19 pandemic. Lancet Respir Med 2020;8:434–6. 10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30134-X - DOI - PMC - PubMed