PHARMACY HEROES: FAITH AND PHARMACY IN THE TIME OF COVID-19
It is a known fact that the world is faced by a great virus in the name of Coronavirus, a virus which belongs to the Corona viridae family in the Nido-viridae order. The earlier strains of the virus—Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus—were thought to infect only animals until the world witnessed a SARS outbreak caused by SARS-COV which started out in Guangdong, China. Only a decade later, MERS-COV caused an endemic in the middle eastern countries.
In December, 2019, Wuhan, a city in China’s Hubei province, became the first epicenter of the novel CoronaVirus that killed more than eighteen hundred and infected over seventy thousand individuals within the first fifteen days of the epidemic. The virus has since been declared a pandemic by the WHO, with 731 458 laboratory-confirmed cases, as of 19 May, and 316 169 reported deaths.
Pharmacy is one of the key professions on the front line in the fight against Coronavirus. Likewise, given its universality of scope and having left no single issue untouched, the religion of Islam has also been indispensable in the quest to end the Covid-19 scourge. In light of this background, this essay seeks to examine the roles of Islam and Pharmacy in addressing and bringing an end to Coronavirus pandemic.
Firstly, religious-wise, one finds that much of the Coronavirus response guidelines is embedded in the religion of Islam. Perhaps, nothing remains as much instructive and unequivocal as the statement of Prophet Muhammed (peace and blessings be upon him) on the subject of pandemic. He was reported to have said: "When you hear that a plague is in a land, do not enter it and if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave the place. [Sahih al Bukhari]. This statement alone has led many to assert that, much of the fast-spreading scourge could have been maverted if this narration was practised worldwide with immediate effect. Nonetheless, it has, however, become the status quo in many places across the world.
The holy prophet practiced social distancing as well. It is reported that a leprous man once wished to pledge his allegiance to him by touching the holy Prophet's hand. Keeping his distance, the holy Prophet said to him that his pledge had already been accepted that he should return home. [Sunnah Ibn Majah].
Regarding isolation, the holy Prophet also taught that those who were sick should not in any way compromise the community at large. He said: ‘Do not place a sick patient with a healthy person’. This teaching was extended to animals as well: ‘The cattle suffering from a disease should not be mixed with healthy cattle. [Sahih al Bukhari].
Beyond this, though, the Coronavirus pandemic has strongly impacted the Muslim faithfuls, especially in terms of worship. In most places, Muslim faithfuls can no longer gather together in mosques to pray, rather they have had to make mosques out of their homes. Of course, there is a high likelihood that this year's Eid el-Fitr will be observed at home and not at traditional prayer grounds.
Moving on. Pharmacists play a key role as drug information experts. Their roles have expanded, without doubt, since the emergence of the novel Coronavirus. One of these roles of the pharmacists has been to ensure the availability and timely provision of the safest and most effective therapy in the management of Covid-19 positive individuals.
Pharmacists have also had to plan for, identify and mitigate drug shortages during Covid-19 pandemic. This has been crucial given that drug shortages can lead to prescribing of sub-optimal therapy and have been associated with potential harm. When there are limited suppliers of raw or active pharmaceutical ingredients, drug shortages easily occur.
As a member of the healthcare team, Pharmacists also support the other health care team members and infectious diseases control team to stop the spread of disease.
Furthermore, pharmacists take various steps to minimize unnecessary PPE use by helping limit unnecessary entry into patient’s room. This has be done by aligning medical administrations times, conversion of intravenous to per os when possible to decrease nurses needing to respond to pump alert, ensuring therapeutic drug monitoring and other patient’s interactions.
Pharmacists also educate their patients and the public on the effective strategies to prevent acquisition and further spread of the disease (e.g. Optimal hand hygiene, social distancing, staying at home if having respiratory symptoms). Pharmacists are not immune to Covid-19. Quite sadly, the Coronavirus pandemic has had its toll on pharmacists worldwide as well, with reported and confirmed cases of loss of lives of pharmacists to the virus—these were the pharmacy heroes.
Lots of medical, pharmaceutical, microbial and traditional research works have been going on in order to find a cure for the novel Coronavirus. Majority of this research is geared towards vaccine production, and the fastest vaccine, experts say, will take no less twelve months. Gilead Sciences Inc's work on Remdesivir has also been prospective and promising. Remdesivir has demonstrated invitro and invivo activity in animal models against the viral pathogen MERS and SARS, indicating that Remdesivir may have potential activity against Covid-19.
Finally, in this trying time, everywhere across the globe, there is need for revamping of faith that the pandemic will soon be over. This is necessary in the face of panic. People also need to help the healthcare professionals and their governments by following the laid down guidelines to fight the novel Coronavirus.
To end, Allah says in the holy Qur'an: ‘Verily after hardship comes ease’. [Q94v6]. He also says in another part: "Be sure We shall test you with something of fear and hunger, some loss in good lives and the fruits of your toil. But give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere. [Q2v155-157].
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ADEPOJU Sulaiman's Pharmacy Heroes: Faith and Pharmacy in the Time of Covid-19 won the first prize in the essay category. He is a sophomore of Pharmacy, Olabisi Onabanjo University.
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