Public Engagement on Facilitating Access to Antiviral Medications and Information in an Influenza Pandemic: Workshop Series Summary by Barbara Fain

Author:Barbara Fain
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: The National Academies Press
Published: 2012-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

Antiviral Pick-Up and Delivery by Community Contacts

The second alternative strategy was presented to participants as a policy to encourage family, friends, neighbors, and other community contacts to pick up prescribed antiviral medications from pharmacies and deliver them to people home with influenza. No further details about this policy were offered, other than the suggestion that local community organizations might have a role in this strategy.

Participants were asked to consider:

1. What are the pros and cons of a pick-up and delivery strategy such as this one?

2. What might work well, what could go wrong, what are ways to improve?

3. Would you have any concerns about going to a pharmacy to pick up antiviral drugs during a pandemic?

Advantages and Disadvantages of Community Contact Pick-Up and Delivery

Many participants at the community conversations had generally positive reactions to the strategy of asking family and community contacts to pick up and deliver antiviral medications for the sick. This strategy’s advantages are that it could

• be convenient for people sick at home with flu;

• help contain the spread of disease by reducing the need for sick people to congregate in public places like pharmacies;

• lead community members to check in on the sick; and

• result in more helping hands and encourage acts of compassion by enlisting community members in the effort.

Nonetheless, the small-group discussions did describe the disadvantages of having family and community contacts pick up and deliver medications to the sick. Multiple participants at all three locations were particularly concerned that

• The people doing the pick-up and delivery might face increased personal risks, including exposure to flu, security issues, and legal liability.

• Some family, friends, and community contacts might be unreliable or dishonest; they might keep the antivirals for their own use or resell them for profit, particularly in times of scarcity.

• Some sick people do not have family or community contacts who are willing and able to help.

• Sick people would not see a pharmacist themselves, so would be less likely to receive advice and instruction on the use of their antiviral medications.

Some participants in Fort Benton, MT, also identified the possibility that inclement weather could interfere significantly with this strategy.

Along with this discussion of the strategy’s advantages and disadvantages, individual participants contributed a variety of ideas to more effectively implement this strategy, including

• In addition to family and friends, pick-up and delivery of prescribed antivirals could be organized through a network of established community groups and trusted agents.

• Include clear, printed instructions about antiviral treatment for sick people who will not have the benefit of face-to-face consultations with pharmacists.

• Provide personal protective equipment to those who make deliveries.

• Set up dispensing points other than pharmacies to avoid inundating pharmacies.

• Encourage primary and secondary schools and long-term care facilities to file “standing” permission slips that identify persons authorized to pick up and deliver antivirals on behalf of individual students and elders.

Several participants in Montana articulated knowledge of the local conditions as particularly important to making this strategy successful, and therefore, identified community organizations particularly

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