HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitudes amongst pharmacists in Zimbabwe.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the knowledge of HIV/AIDS amongst pharmacists in Zimbabwe.


METHODS
Cross sectional survey.


METHODS
National survey of pharmacists in major urban areas and final year pharmacy students at the University of Zimbabwe.


METHODS
250 pharmacists and 47 pharmacy students with 126 completed questionnaires returned (42.4%).


METHODS
The questionnaire asked for demographic details of the respondent, sources of knowledge about HIV/AIDS and measured knowledge (KW), fear of contagion (FC), negative emotions (NE) and professional resistance (PR) using a Likert scale of 1 to 5.


METHODS
Computed scores of KW, FC, NE and PR and reported sources of knowledge on HIV/AIDS.


RESULTS
All pharmacists scored highly on KW (mean [SEM] = 4.0 [0.0] with academics scoring the highest (4.2 [0.5]; n = 7) and private hospital pharmacists the lowest (3.7 [0.2]; n = 5). Medical books/journals and professional colleagues were the most important sources of information. Scores for FC (2.7 [0.1]), PR (2.4 [0.1]) and NE (2.1 [0.1]) were low. Government hospital pharmacists tended to have a higher KW score than those in private hospitals (4.1 [0.3] vs 3.7 [0.2] respectively). Most of the respondents believed that HIV/AIDS had increased their workload. However, they saw a role for pharmacists in the prevention and management of HIV/AIDS but felt there were important time constraints.


CONCLUSIONS
Pharmacists can play an important part in the strategy to manage the national HIV/AIDS epidemic, but negative attitudes towards HIV/AIDS sufferers may adversely affect their efficiency.
Ball
D E
DE
Department of Pharmacy, University of Zimbabwe, P O Box MP 167, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe. dball@healthnet.zw
Mazarurwi
P
P
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010595:Pharmacists; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D015030:Zimbabwe