CASTRIES, St Lucia: The OECS Secretariat's Pharmaceutical Procurement Services Unit (OECSPPS) will be organizing a high level OECS Anti-retroviral (ARV) Drug Supply management workshop in St Lucia in June 2007. Experts at the ARV management workshop will include HIV/AIDS research specialists from Barbados, Cuba, World Health Organization and Management Services for Health.

The purpose of the workshop is to empower pharmacists on the latest treatment protocols of anti-retroviral drugs. Delegates will discuss a systemic approach in reporting adverse reactions to the ARV drugs known as pharmacovigilance. The OECSPPS will then become the sub-region's Pharmacovigilance Centre and will set up that system of reporting at the workshop.

The forecasting of ARV drugs poses specific difficulties because the treatment involves three drugs simultaneously. Francis Burnet, Director of OECSPPS says it is important to have a steady supply of first line and second line drugs for the treatment of patients. There is also need to forecast accurately so when suppliers are invited to tender, they will import what was planned to purchase so that purchases will match what was forecasted on tender documents.

The regional workshop will then be supported by follow-up national country workshops. The OECSPPS plans to train one or two staff members as super trainers to roll out the software in each OECS country. It is a very sophisticated spreadsheet with a number of formulae in assisting countries to forecast.

Christophe Rerat, a sub-regional advisor for Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) says he will be playing a special role in the ARV drug workshop, including the area of pharmacovigilance. Clinical care nurses, fifty pharmacists, nine physicians and managers of Central Medical Stores in the OECS are expected to attend the workshop. The event will be sponsored by Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS (PANCUP), OECS HIV/AIDS Program Unit (HAPU).

This workshop in June is a direct follow-up to a Castries meeting held in May 2006. The May 2006 meeting recognised the need for specialized training for OECS staff regarding the forecasting and quantification of ARVs for treating HIV/AIDS infected persons.

By Anselma Aimable
Caribbean Net News St Lucia Correspondent
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