World Health Organization takes steps to dampen public expectation about the potential of drugs in development to fight the virus.
Liberians read the ’daily talk’ chalkboard on the Ebola crisis in the capital Monrovia. According to statistics from the World Health Organization, as of 16 August 2014, 1,229 people have died from Ebola in West Africa (Source: epa european pressphoto agency b.v. / Alamy)
Pharmacists and pharmacy students in Liberia are to visit drug stores and pharmacies to give staff advice about preventing the spread of the Ebola virus in the country’s capital city Monrovia.
The initiative is being led by the Pharmaceutical Association of Liberia and will start on Wednesday 20 August 2014.
Pharmacists will also hand out flyers at premises across the capital, which explain how staff and the public can protect themselves and to help dispel myths that are circulating about how the virus is caught.
At the same time, the country’s medicines control authority is inspecting pharmacy premises to make sure that drug counterfeiters are not bringing fake Ebola products on to the market, exploiting the current climate of public fear.
“The profession has taken up health promotion and information dissemination sessions, starting with pharmacies and medicines stores,” explains Lloyd Matowe, program director for Pharmaceutical Systems Africa — an organisation devoted to setting up sustainable supply chains in developing countries.