Infectious diseases

Community pharmacies have an essential role in sustaining the elimination of hepatitis C in England

Pharmacies can provide easy access to hepatitis C testing for people who inject drugs, helping to control infection rates and allow the elimination of the virus in England by 2025.…

Chickenpox: symptoms, treatment and potential complications

Pharmacists can advise on treatment options and symptom relief for this common childhood illness.…

National pilots for PrEP access from community pharmacies recommended by government advisers

Exclusive: Health minister Lord Markham said the recommendations of the 'PrEP access and equity task and finish group' were being considered and plans would be made available in 2023.…

Antibiotic resistance: is it time to get serious about point-of-care testing?

There is solid evidence from other countries that point-of-care testing before prescribing antibiotics for respiratory tract and other infections helps to combat antimicrobial resistance, but experts say the UK is far behind.…

How COVID-19 affected pharmacy supply of antibiotics for uncomplicated urinary tract infections

Learnings from a community pharmacy patient group direction service for the management of suspected urinary tract infections, which identified prescribing patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic.…

UTIs can be diagnosed without a dipstick test, says NICE

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has said women aged under 65 years can be diagnosed with urinary tract infection if they have two or more key urinary symptoms and no other excluding causes or warning signs.…

Chlamydia: screening, diagnosis and management

Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the UK. Learn the signs and symptoms of chlamydia, who is eligible for screening and how to treat it.…

Eliminating HIV: are we on target?

Testing was blown off course by the COVID-19 pandemic, so England has to continue to make progress in order to reach its target of zero new HIV transmissions by 2030.…

Everything you need to know about the COVID-19 therapy trials

There are thousands of clinical trials investigating treatments and preventative measures for COVID-19.…

Shortage of cold and flu medicines increases pressure on pharmacies

Community pharmacists are claiming the current medicine supply system is broken, as price concessions reach record levels.…