Self-care is often thought of as what people do for themselves to establish and maintain health, and to prevent and deal with illness. According to the World Health Organization, it is a broad concept encompassing nutrition (type and quality of food eaten), lifestyle (sporting activities, leisure etc), environmental factors (living conditions, social habits etc), socioeconomic factors (income level, cultural beliefs etc), self-medication and hygiene (general and personal). This study, which took the form of an online questionnaire, aimed to describe community pharmacy insights into hygiene and pharmacy teams’ role in addressing germ concerns of the public across India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Thailand. The findings from our literature review showed that the concept of providing hygiene care advice has been differently shaped pre- and post-COVID times. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the area of focus was limited to oral hygiene. All studies reviewed in the literature reinforced the vital role of community pharmacists as the public’s first choice of healthcare provider in mitigating the spread of the disease as well as their prominent contribution to overall emergency management. There was also an unequivocal need to support, train and educate community pharmacists and their teams to improve their knowledge because the concept of increasing personal hygiene awareness is a focus area of community pharmacists in developed and developing countries.
What community pharmacy teams need to support good hygiene as part of people’s self-care
