To support the launch of The European Partnership for Action Against Cancer (See in EUM 33), the Pharmacy Group of the EU (PGEU), representing community pharmacists released a statement on 31 January in which it identified cancer as a key public health concern and highlighted action that can be taken by community pharmacists to fight it.

PGEU stated that one of the roles of community pharmacists in helping fight cancer is to be a resource for supporting and improving health promotion. Community pharmacies are used by both healthy individuals and people suffering from ill health, which creates an opportunity to communicate preventive measures to healthy persons. PGEU invited community pharmacists to be involved in early detection and population-based screening. Pharmacists can promote vaccines, provide information and education to the public, and make referrals.

Community pharmacists can also play a bigger role in the treatment of cancer patients due to the new design of chemotherapy regimens, the use of ambulatory pumps, and increased availability of oral chemotherapy. When properly trained, community pharmacists can become members of palliative care teams and support patients receiving treatment at home.

In its statement, PGEU also committed to:

• promoting the rational and safe use of oral chemotherapy and supportive treatments;

• encouraging training of pharmacists, and health professionals in general, in order to build multidisciplinary teams for cancer care ;

• promoting and sharing best professional practices ;

• collaborating with the European Commission and Member States in the setup of systems to ensure access to, and the quality delivery of, services for cancer prevention, screening and care.

The full PGEU statement contains best practices from different Member States and is available here.
In a statement on the A(H1N1) outbreak, PGEU highlighted the role community pharmacists play in advising patients, educating the public and informing them when they should see a doctor, as they are often the first point of contact for the public. This can range from dispelling myths about routine immunisations to communicating disease risk and public hygiene measures during the pandemic. In many countries, pharmacies have been key points for disseminating messages prepared by national authorities individually or in collaboration with National Pharmacy Associations.

PGEU underlined that in a pandemic situation, antivirals need to be distributed to patients within hours of the onset of symptoms. In many cases, patients infected with H1N1 need additional medicines, such as for example non-prescription medicines to alleviate muscular pain, fever and cough. Community pharmacists therefore play an important role in ensuring that patients are given appropriate advice on the range of medicines they are taking, while allowing the identification of possible adverse reactions associated with the antivirals.
Finally, where this is possible under national law, pharmacists are immunisers and assume an active role in protecting vulnerable people (e.g. in Portugal, pharmacists are already involved in population vaccination for seasonal influenza and in Ireland, pharmacists are being trained to provide H1N1 immunisation). Vaccine delivery by pharmacists is associated with higher immunisation rates among those under 65 years of age receiving chronic drug therapy.

The full PGEU statement can be found here.

In its third statement released 31 January, PGEU looks at ways of acting on antibiotic resistance.
The past decades have seen a significant rise in antimicrobial resistance in Europe. Each year, approximately 25,000 patients die from an infection caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria. These types of infections are estimated to result in extra healthcare costs and productivity losses of at least EUR 1.5 billion each year. Evidence shows that, as a consequence of the widespread use of these medicines, resistance to antibiotics reaches 25% or more in several Member States.

The rise of this major public health challenge has spurred action from the European Institutions and agencies, such as the European Commission’s strategy against antimicrobial resistance and the Council Recommendation on the prudent use of antimicrobial agents in human medicines. More recently, a European Antibiotics Awareness Day was established in 2008, and a joint report of ECDC and EMA on ‘The Bacterial challenge: Time to React’ was published.
PGEU highly recommends a change in the pattern of antibiotic use, with the involvement of both patients and health professionals, insisting that it is crucial that antibiotics are prescribed and dispensed responsibly and used correctly.
PGEU states that pharmacists’ intervention in this area includes not only best dispensing practices, but also information about the importance of taking the antibiotic as prescribed, both in terms of regimen (e.g. every 12 hours) and duration of treatment (e.g. for 7 days). Furthermore, by monitoring and informing patients about possible side effects, adverse reactions and drug interactions, pharmacists contribute to the correct use of antibiotics and identify possible causes for non-adherence.

Beside the provision of information and promotion of health campaigns at pharmacy level, PGEU also recommends health promotion in schools and in other community organisations as an effective way of improving awareness of the rational and appropriate use of medicines, including antibiotics. In some of the Member States, pharmacists visit schools and community support groups to convey health messages, supported by their professional organisations.
In the statement PGEU gives a call to action, encouraging EU Institutions and Member States to:

• Further promote EU-wide information campaigns to influence the expectations of the public regarding the prescribing of antibiotics (in particular, that they are ineffective for the treatment of viral infections such as simple coughs and colds) by reinforcing the involvement of health professionals in the European Antibiotics Awareness Day (both in the design and implementation phases).

• Support national coordinated action by organisations representing health professionals and patients to promote rational and appropriate prescribing, dispensing and use of antibiotics.

• Support practice-oriented research targeting adherence to antibiotic therapies and the development of educational tools for health professionals and patients.

• Finally, PGEU calls on all health professionals to engage with the issue of antibiotic resistance and examine - and if necessary revise - prescribing and dispensing practices accordingly.