Ensuring access to health care and medicines during COVID-19: critical challenges and feasible policy options for the medicines retail sector

管理流行病和确保持续获得药物对任何政府来说都是一项艰巨的任务。在大多数高收入环境中，这可以通过以公共卫生系统为重点的活动来实现。然而，在乌干达等国家，40-70%的发烧、头痛和咳嗽药物是通过药店、私人诊所和药房提供的。政府需要制定政策和计划，使药品零售部门（MRS）能够继续为疟疾和细菌性肺炎等常见传染病提供治疗;不会成为疾病传播的“热点”;并能够在疾病爆发期间积极为公共卫生应对做出贡献。政府很难知道如何让MRS参与应对COVID-19。可供借鉴的指导方针很少。世界卫生组织正在寻求更好地支持私营部门行为者的方法，以便他们能够成为COVID-19应对措施的有效组成部分，并继续为其他疾病提供护理。他们的工作因缺乏证据而受阻。这个项目是乌干达、英国和丹麦研究人员长期合作的一部分。它将以零售业最近的研究为基础，迅速创造和传播新的证据：当前政策（包括封锁和宵禁）对MRS和社区获得治疗的影响; MRS成员愿意参与COVID-19公共卫生应对（健康教育，检测，监测）的方式;以及在该国扩大规模的成本。

Managing pandemics and ensuring ongoing access to medicines is a difficult task for any government. In most high income settings, this can be achieved by activities focussed on public health systems. In countries such as Uganda, however, 40-70% of medicines for fever, headaches and cough are delivered through drug shops, private clinics and pharmacies. Governments need to create policies and programmes so that the medicines retail sector (MRS) can continue to provide treatment for common infectious diseases like malaria and bacterial pneumonia; does not become a 'hotspot' for disease transmission; and can actively contribute to the public health response during disease outbreaks.It is difficult for governments to know how to involve the MRS in responses to COVID-19. There are few guidelines to draw upon. The World Health Organisation is seeking ways to better support private sector actors so that they can be an effective part of the COVID-19 response and continue to provide care for other illnesses. Their work is stymied by a lack of evidence.This project is part of a long standing collaboration between researchers in Uganda, UK and Denmark. It will build on recent research in the retail sector to rapidly create and disseminate new evidence on: the impact of current policies (including lockdown and curfew) on the MRS and community access to treatment; the ways in which members of the MRS are willing to be involved in COVID-19 public health response (health education, testing, surveillance); and what this would cost to scale up in the country.