Assessment of the Quality of Saudi Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) Based on the Accuracy of Physical Description and Frequency of Solid Dosage Forms.

The physical description of dosage forms is one of the most important considerations in avoiding patient confusion and minimizing medication errors. This study aimed to determine the quality and accuracy of the physical descriptions in patient information leaflets (PILs). This cross-sectional study constituted a total of 200 drugs and PILs that were randomly selected, by pharmacy students, from Al-Dawaa community pharmacies in the Hail region of Saudi Arabia, from January 2021 to July 2021. The drugs and PILs were thoroughly evaluated in accordance with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) guidelines for PILs. The accuracy screening of the total solid dosage forms (capsules + tablets) revealed that 45% showed complete accuracy and compliance, 1.5% showed poor accuracy and compliance, and 53% showed no accuracy and no compliance with the GCC guidelines and the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) guidelines. In the frequency test, color, shape, and imprints accounted for 95.6%, 79.1%, and 73.6%, respectively. However, the size of the dosage form was the least (2.2%) used physical description feature. These findings recommend pharmaceutical companies to pay more attention to the written physical description in their PILs. Additionally, the process of PIL approval should be optimized, evaluated, and updated systematically to ensure that they contain the essential information.

An overview of SARS-COV-2 epidemiology, mutant variants, vaccines, and management strategies.

BACKGROUND: Over the last two decades, humanity has observed the extraordinary anomaly caused by novel, weird coronavirus strains, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). As the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus has made its entry into the world, it has dramatically affected life in every domain by continuously producing new variants. The vaccine development is an ongoing process, although some vaccines got marketed. The big challenge is now whether the vaccine candidates can provide long-lasting protection or prevention against mutant variants. METHODS: The information was gathered from various journals, electronic searches via Internet-based information such as PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, online electronic journals, WHO landscape, world meters, WHO website, and News. RESULTS: This review will present and discuss some coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) related aspects including: the pathophysiology, epidemiology, mutant variants vaccine candidates, vaccine efficacy, and management strategies. Due to the high death rate, continuous spread, an inadequate workforce, lack of required therapeutics, and incomplete understanding of the viral strain, it becomes crucial to build the knowledge of its biological characteristics and make available the rapid diagnostic and vital therapeutic machinery for the combat and management of an infection. CONCLUSION: The data summarizes current research on the COVID 19 infection and therapeutic interventions, which will direct future decision-making on the effort-worthy phases of the COVID 19 and the development of critical therapeutics. The only possible solution is the vaccine development targeting against all variant strains to halt its progress; the identified theoretical and practical knowledge can eliminate the gaps to improve a better understanding of the novel coronavirus structure and its design of a vaccine. In addition, to that the long-lasting protection is another challenging objective that need to be looked into.