Experiences of community pharmacists in the United Kingdom on the provision of travel health services and associated educational requirements.

Background: Travel health services play a critical role in public health. Previously, travel services were provided solely through GPs or private specialist clinics. In recent years, they have been available from community pharmacists in the UK.

Microemulsification of essential oils for the development of antimicrobial and mosquito repellent functional coatings for textiles.

Aims: To develop an essential oil (EO)-loaded textile coating using an environmentally friendly microemulsion technique to achieve both antimicrobial and mosquito repellent functionalities.

Methods And Results: Minimum inhibitory concentrations and fractional inhibitory concentrations of litsea, lemon and rosemary EOs were determined against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Trichophyton rubrum. A 1 : 2 mixture of litsea and lemon EOs inhibited all the microorganisms tested and was incorporated into a chitosan-sodium alginate assembly by a microemulsification process.

Characterisation of actions of p-menthane-3,8-diol repellent formulations against Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

Background: Characterisation of mosquito repellents using arm-in-cage tests are performed by assessing the 95% effective dose (ED95), half-life and complete protection time (CPT). This study fully characterizes these properties for p-menthane-3,8-diol (PMD), which has not been widely studied, and a long-acting formulation containing a PMD-vanillin composite.

Methods: A series of arm-in-cage tests against Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) mosquitoes were devised using 6 volunteers to estimate CPT or 10 to estimate the ED95 and half-lives for three repellents: 20% N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide (DEET), 30% PMD and a novel 30% PMD-vanillin formulation.

Personalised Warfarin Dosing in Children Post-cardiac Surgery.

Warfarin dosing is challenging due to a multitude of factors affecting its pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD). A novel personalised dosing algorithm predicated on a warfarin PK/PD model and incorporating CYP2C9 and VKORC1 genotype information has been developed for children. The present prospective, observational study aimed to compare the model with conventional weight-based dosing.

Pharmacy Travel Health Services in Canada: Experience of Early Adopters.

Since 2007, community pharmacists in Canada have become increasingly involved in delivering Travel Health services, including the recommendation and administration of vaccines. This qualitative scoping survey examines some of the activities and opinions of those early pharmacist adopters delivering these services. A Survey Monkey free text questionnaire was emailed to pharmacists who were involved in delivering travel medicine services.