Stigmatizing attitudes and low levels of knowledge but high willingness to participate in HIV management: a community-based survey of pharmacies in Pune, India.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that the role of pharmacists in low-income settings be expanded to address the increasing complexity of HIV antiretroviral (ARV) and co-infection drug regimens. However, in many such settings including in India, many pharmacists and pharmacy workers are often neither well trained nor aware of the intricacies of HIV treatment. The aims of our study were; to determine the availability of ARVs, provision of ARVs, knowledge about ARVs, attitudes towards HIV-infected persons and self-perceived need for training among community-based pharmacies in an urban area of India.

Methods

We performed a survey of randomly selected, community-based pharmacies located in Pune, India, in 2004-2005 to determine the availability of ARVs a

SUBMITTER: Gupta A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2939646 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature