Background and Objectives: Compliance of community pharmacies with the proper practice of storage and dispensing of medicines is crucial for ensuring the quality and safety of medicines, particularly with the circumstance of recurrent electricity blackout in Libya. This study was aimed to assess the compliance of community pharmacies with the proper practice of drug storage in Tripoli city, Libya. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey conducted in November 2020 targeting a total of 56 community pharmacies in Tripoli, Libya. The questionnaire was adapted from the WHO Checklist for Good Storage Practices and included 41 questions organized under five sections: socio-demographics, pharmacist’s attitude toward the quality of storage practices, queries on environmental storage conditions, the quality of facilities in the community pharmacy, and queries on storage and pharmacy practices. Data were presented as descriptive statistics. Results: Out of the total 56 visited pharmacies, a total of 46 (82.1%) pharmacists participated in the study with one pharmacist being interviewed in every pharmacy. Results showed that 15% of employees reported variety of cleanliness regulatory depending on cutting off running water circumstances in Tripoli and other reasons. About 78.8% participants observed dust in shelves and over the drugs packaging, and 22% of the participant pharmacies’ drugs exposure to direct sunlight. Additionally, 72% of employee experienced high temperatures in the pharmacy during electricity blackouts, whereas only 48% of them experienced humidity. In addition, 91.4% had alternative source of electricity, 44.3% had a power backup connected to the refrigerators. Conclusion: The compliance of majority of the community pharmacies operated in Tripoli is below standard. There is still need to improve the storage practices in the community pharmacies by obeying with the regulatory standards as specified by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Libya.
Ahmed Elbadri M Atia(5-2021)

More Please check this summary of your article Test We're testing a new feature which would provide a 1-sentence summary of an article to help others quickly decide if it is relevant for them. We need your help to find out how accurate this automatically generated summary is. This summary is for testing purposes – only you can see it. Summary The adequacy of information given to consumers on over-the-counter medications dispensed in community pharmacies in Tripoli, Libya, and compared the performance Thank you for your help! Your feedback will help improve this feature. Very good How would you summarize your article in 1 sentence? Help us improve the quality of this feature by writing your own summary. Others will not see your summary. Enter your 1-sentence summary (max 300 characters) Do you have any other feedback about this feature? Enter your feedback Submit Abstract and figures Background: Adherence to pharmacy practice guidelines for dispensing medications in pharmacy settings is important to ensure the safe use of medications. Aims: This study assessed the pattern and adequacy of information given to consumers on over-the-counter medications dispensed in community pharmacies in Tripoli, Libya, and compared the performance of pharmacists and non-pharmacists. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey of private community pharmacies conducted in 2018 . Trained simulated patients were used to collect data on over-the-counter medications dispensed for hypothetical common cold symptoms and the information given by the pharmacy staff on the medication. This information included: name and the strength of the medication, indication for use, duration of use, dosage, how often to take the medicine, timing (before/after/with food), storage, expiry date, and side-effects of the medicine. Time taken to deliver the information was recorded. The adequacy of information provided by the pharmacists and non-pharmacists was compared. Results: A total of 169 pharmacists were surveyed. There were no significant differences between pharmacists and non-pharmacists in information given on the dispensed medications, except for information on taking the medication with food or not (84.5% of pharmacists gave this information versus 57.1% of non-pharmacists; P = 0.001) and on potential side-effects (39.4% of pharmacists versus 20.3% of non-pharmacists; P = 0.014). Significantly more pharmacists (85.9%) than non-pharmacists (61.2%) provided the medication-related information in less than 1 minute (P = 0.001). Conclusion: The inadequate information on medications provided by pharmacists is a concern for patient safety. Health regulatory organizations need to promote safe medication practices.
Ahmed Elbadri M Atia(7-2020)

one of the main factors that affect the success of the cast crown is the accuracy of the internal and marginal fit, a well-fitting crown reduces the chance for recurrent caries and periodontal disease, whereas the space between a poorly-fitting crown and tooth preparation enables accumulation of bacterial plaque, the use of paint- on die spacing technique to produce the cement gap and subsequently to improve the seating of the cast crowns has become quite popular in the recent years. The purpose of the study is to compare the marginal gap and the internal fit produced by two paint-on die spacing materials (Manicure and paint on die spacer ). Twenty four identical stone dies were made, 12 were coated with paint- on die spacer material, and 12 were coated with nail varnish material, the dies coated with die spacer were divided into three groups (DA,DB,DC), and the dies coated with nail varnish were also divided into three groups (VA,VB,VC), groups DA and VA were coated with one layer, DB and VB were coated with two layers, DC and VC were coated with three layers, for both groups wax patterns were made and casted using the lost waxing technique and all steps were standardized, impression replicas of the casted crowns were made and sectioned by means of the impression replica technique, measurements were taken using Scanning Electron Microscope, from 4 points (marginal gap, mid-axial, axio-occlusal and mid-occlusal). There was no statistical significant difference in accuracy between crowns fabricated on die spacer coated dies and crowns fabricated on nail varnish coated dies. with the crowns fabricated on die spacer coated dies being slightly more accurate.
ABDUSSALAM ELJABALI(12-2019)