Seminar 9 – Chronic infections, the involvement of the hospital pharmacist

Abstract:

Patients with chronic infections are often at high risk. If we look at the chronic viral diseases like HIV or Hepatitis C we have to realise that drug treatment does not cure the patient and they have to continue taking the drugs until the end of their life. During these long-term therapies a resistance to the drug used often develops, so the patient has to switch to another drug. In several countries, those patients are taken care of by hospitals, in others the initiation of therapy will be in the hospital, but continuation of treatment will take place either in the hospital or in ambulatory care. This produces some difficulties regarding the continuity of care. Chronic infectious diseases may also be regarded as disease with a long duration of therapy, such as in tuberculosis but also in osteomyelitis or long lasting chronic wound infections. The hospital pharmacist should play a special role in pharmaceutical care for these patients. He should be in charge of medication reconciliation as well as of informing the caretakers in ambulatory care. Therefore, the hospital pharmacist should have a lot of expertise regarding the treatment of chronic infectious diseases.

Teaching Goals:

• show the impact of different chronic infections in the hospital
• discuss different approaches in care for patients with chronic infections
• give insights in the role of the hospital pharmacist in treatment of chronic infections
• define drug therapy for different chronic infections

Learning Objectives:

After the presentation the participant should:

• be able to define the relevance of chronic infections for the hospital pharmacist
• know how different chronic infections are treated and how the clinical/hospital pharmacist is involved in the treatment
• know about treatment duration and treatment cost