ABSTRACT

Background World Health Organization (WHO) considers local pharmacies as an underused source that can contribute more effectively to the health care programs of the community. This study was aimed to evaluate the impact of involving private pharmacies for timely referral to facilitate TB case detection in Pakistan.

Methods In this study, 398 pharmacies in five major districts of Pakistan were contacted. Patients having apparent TB symptoms or chronic cough for more than two weeks were referred for TB case detection to the nearby center of National TB Control Program (NTP). The patients were monitored and followed up to analyze the results of the diagnostic tests by involving pharmacy students.

Results Out of 398 enrolled pharmacies, only 224 pharmacies (56.28%) were producing referrals. A total of 994 TB suspects were referred for tests out of which 839 (84.4%) actually appeared for the TB examination tests while 155 (15.5%) were missing. Of total 839 tested suspects, 189 (22.5%) were diagnosed with smear positive TB.

Conclusion Community pharmacies under the thematic model of public private partnership can be the key players in tracing, preventing and early diagnosis of TB. This project can be extended and implemented in all provinces of Pakistan with more technical and financial inputs in the existing system in order to completely eradicate TB.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Funding Statement

Not applicable.

Author Declarations

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

The ethics approval was taken from the Ethics Committee on Human Research of University College of Pharmacy, University of Punjab with reference number HEC/PUCP/1953.

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

Yes

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

Yes

I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

Yes

Data Availability

All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONSCDRCase Detection RateMOUMemorandum of UnderstandingNTPNational TB Control ProgramPPMPublic Private MixTBTBWHOWorld Health Organization