The human toll and humanitarian crisis of the Russia-Ukraine war: the first 162 days.

BACKGROUND: We examined the human toll and subsequent humanitarian crisis resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24 February 2022. METHOD: We extracted and analysed data resulting from Russian military attacks on Ukrainians between 24 February and 4 August 2022. The data tracked direct deaths and injuries, damage to healthcare infrastructure and the impact on health, the destruction of residences, infrastructure, communication systems, and utility services - all of which disrupted the lives of Ukrainians. RESULTS: As of 4 August 2022, 5552 civilians were killed outright and 8513 injured in Ukraine as a result of Russian attacks. Local officials estimate as many as 24 328 people were also killed in mass atrocities, with Mariupol being the largest (n=22 000) such example. Aside from wide swaths of homes, schools, roads, and bridges destroyed, hospitals and health facilities from 21 cities across Ukraine came under attack. The disruption to water, gas, electricity, and internet services also extended to affect supplies of medications and other supplies owing to destroyed facilities or production that ceased due to the war. The data also show that Ukraine saw an increase in cases of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and Coronavirus (COVID-19). CONCLUSIONS: The 2022 Russia-Ukraine War not only resulted in deaths and injuries but also impacted the lives and safety of Ukrainians through destruction of healthcare facilities and disrupted delivery of healthcare and supplies. The war is an ongoing humanitarian crisis given the continuing destruction of infrastructure and services that directly impact the well-being of human lives. The devastation, trauma and human cost of war will impact generations of Ukrainians to come.

APPROACHES OF MEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL SPECIALISTS TO INJECTION PHARMACOTHERAPY: QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY.

OBJECTIVE: The aim: To study medical and pharmaceutical specialists' approaches to outpatient injection treatment and their impact on the quality of medical care. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: The object of the study was the answers of health care professionals (n=1408) to the questions on the use of injectable pharmacotherapy in personal treatment, listed in a specially designed questionnaire on a single protocol. System analysis, questionnaire survey, statistical, comparative-and-analytical methods were used. RESULTS: Results: The quality of outpatient injectable pharmacotherapy, according to the results of a survey of medical and pharmaceutical specialist, can be considered inappropriate, as in 52.9% of respondents the local adverse reaction were significantly more likely to develop compared to the respondents who did not have any local adverse reaction (χ2=21.7819, p<0.05). Most often, the following complications of injectable pharmacotherapy occurred in the analyzed respondents: pain - 45.8%; hardening - 28.3% and reddening - 21.7%. When conducting home-based treatment, 42.8% of the respondents involved persons without medical education for the execution of procedures, which is significantly more frequent (χ2=26.5556, p<0.05) in comparison with the respondents who invited medical personnel (27.0%) and used the method of self-injection (30.2%). CONCLUSION: Conclusions: The results of a survey of medical and pharmaceutical specialists revealed that home-based injectable treatment, based mainly on their own experience, is common in the occupational environment of health care professionals.

Antibiotic allergy as a cause of hospitalization in adults: a hospital-based study in Ukraine

BACKGROUND: Antibiotic allergy is an important clinical and social-economical issue. OBJECTIVE: The main objectives of this study were to determine the incidence, causative drugs, and risk groups of antibiotic allergy as a reason for hospitalization. The secondary objective was to evaluate the treatment of antibiotic allergy through the identification of drug related problems (DRPs). METHODS: This retrospective hospital-based study was carried out in one of Lviv city hospitals (Ukraine) from January 2015 to December 2017. Patients with antibiotic allergy as a cause for hospitalization were included in this study. RESULTS: In this study the incidence of antibiotic allergy was 2.0% (95%CI 1.6:2.4) of all admissions to the Unit that provides special medical care for adult inpatients with allergy diseases and allergy reactions. The mean age of patients was 48.5 years (SD=17.0; range 18-83 years) with female predominance (78.2%; 95%CI 68.9:85.2). Antibiotic hypersensitivity reactions manifested as urticaria with angioedema (52.5%; 95%CI 42.3:62.5), urticaria (36.6%; 95%CI 27.8:46.8) or angioedema (10.9%; 95%CI 5.6:18.7). Beta-lactams (48.5%; 95%CI 38.5:58.7), fluoroquinolones (13.9%; 95%CI 7.8%:22.2%) and macrolides (7.9%; 95%CI 3.5:15.0) were specified as the main causative drugs. All patients during hospitalization (a mean of 8.2 days; SD=2.2; range 2-13 days) took at least 3 medicines (a mean of 5.4 medicines per patient; SD=1.2; range 3-12 medicines). The total number of identified DRPs was 400, a mean of 4.0 DRPs per patient (SD=1.8). The most frequently identified type of DRPs was inappropriate route of drug administration (25.0%; 95%CI 20.8:29.5). This was followed by duplicate prescriptions (23.5%; 95%CI 19.4:28.0) and insufficient frequency of drug administration (19.0%; 95%CI 15.3:23.2). Potential drug-drug interactions and inappropriate drug prescriptions each accounted for 16.0% (95% CI 12.6:20.0) of all DRPs. Comparing all above items in 2015, 2016 and 2017 showed no statistically significant changes (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Antibiotic allergy is a common reason for admissions. The treatment of antibiotic allergy is associated with numerous DRPs. Our results could be useful for development of strategies for improving the safety and quality of pharmacotherapy

No disponible

Antibiotic allergy as a cause of hospitalization in adults: a hospital-based study in Ukraine.

BACKGROUND: Antibiotic allergy is an important clinical and social-economical issue. OBJECTIVE: The main objectives of this study were to determine the incidence, causative drugs, and risk groups of antibiotic allergy as a reason for hospitalization. The secondary objective was to evaluate the treatment of antibiotic allergy through the identification of drug related problems (DRPs). METHODS: This retrospective hospital-based study was carried out in one of Lviv city hospitals (Ukraine) from January 2015 to December 2017. Patients with antibiotic allergy as a cause for hospitalization were included in this study. RESULTS: In this study the incidence of antibiotic allergy was 2.0% (95%CI 1.6:2.4) of all admissions to the Unit that provides special medical care for adult inpatients with allergy diseases and allergy reactions. The mean age of patients was 48.5 years (SD=17.0; range 18-83 years) with female predominance (78.2%; 95%CI 68.9:85.2). Antibiotic hypersensitivity reactions manifested as urticaria with angioedema (52.5%; 95%CI 42.3:62.5), urticaria (36.6%; 95%CI 27.8:46.8) or angioedema (10.9%; 95%CI 5.6:18.7). Beta-lactams (48.5%; 95%CI 38.5:58.7), fluoroquinolones (13.9%; 95%CI 7.8%:22.2%) and macrolides (7.9%; 95%CI 3.5:15.0) were specified as the main causative drugs. All patients during hospitalization (a mean of 8.2 days; SD=2.2; range 2-13 days) took at least 3 medicines (a mean of 5.4 medicines per patient; SD=1.2; range 3-12 medicines). The total number of identified DRPs was 400, a mean of 4.0 DRPs per patient (SD=1.8). The most frequently identified type of DRPs was inappropriate route of drug administration (25.0%; 95%CI 20.8:29.5). This was followed by duplicate prescriptions (23.5%; 95%CI 19.4:28.0) and insufficient frequency of drug administration (19.0%; 95%CI 15.3:23.2). Potential drug-drug interactions and inappropriate drug prescriptions each accounted for 16.0% (95% CI 12.6:20.0) of all DRPs. Comparing all above items in 2015, 2016 and 2017 showed no statistically significant changes (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Antibiotic allergy is a common reason for admissions. The treatment of antibiotic allergy is associated with numerous DRPs. Our results could be useful for development of strategies for improving the safety and quality of pharmacotherapy.

QUALITY OF PHARMACEUTICAL CARE AT THE STAGE OF PATIENTS' NEEDS IDENTIFICATION UNDER CONDITIONS OF COMMUNITY PHARMACIES AS A TRANSBORDER PROBLEM.

The results of the study of the real pharmaceutical practice in relation to the patient's needs identification defined that the problem of not always high pharmaceutical care quality at this stage is equally up-to-date for the community pharmacies of Lviv (Ukraine) and Lublin (Poland). It was found that the quantity and amount of questions set by a pharmacist are not related to the conversation duration with a pharmacy visitor, and the communication duration does not have the statistically confirmed dependence on the queue availability, therefore in the context of pharmaceutical care quality, these criteria are of no high importance. Instead, drug-related problems (n = 209) verified by the authors of this article,tthat have been distributed into the groups according to the criterion of the information amount received by a pharmacist studying the needs of the patient (visitor of a pharmacy), were determined as a quantitative indicator of potential pharmaceutical care quality increase.