Preparedness and readiness of the pharmacists in varna region to medically support affected population in case of chemical major incident or disaster

The Northern-Eastern region of Bulgaria is one of the most developed industrial regions of the country. There are numerous chemical plants and industrial installations related to the chemical production. In order to maintain the industry, a lot of warehouses for storage of diverse chemical substances and compounds are also established. Another source for chemical hazard is the biggest Bulgarian port, where thousands of tons of chemicals are continuously loaded or downloaded. The transportation of the chemicals is also a risk factor for chemical incident occurrence. Records are proving that the risk related to the present chemical hazards has not to be neglected, as several chemical major incidents have challenged the regional relief agencies. One of the lessons identified is describing the requirement for faster identification of all those from the population that have been affected by the chemicals in low doses - those into the zones of damaging concentration of the chemical area of damage. All chemical injured casualties that were close to the chemical spill or within the zone of lethal concentration develop rapidly the symptoms of the intoxication and are easily diagnosed and medically attended. The challenge is how to find and direct the casualties with minor symptoms. Majority of these casualties are not considering their complains as serious, therefore are not contacting their general practitioners, but instead are addressing the closest pharmacists for advice and prescription of some drugs for the light symptoms. Based on this records the conclusion of the significant role of pharmacists into chemical incident management has been noted.The objective of this study is to analyze the preparedness and readiness of the pharmacists in Varna region to medically support affected population in case of chemical major incident or disaster.Materials and Methods: a sociological survey of a specific group of healthcare professionals (pharmacists), was conducted, using the direct individual survey method with a standard questionnaire with 38 questions. Method of survey - applied to determine the knowledge of two groups of healthcare professionals – master-degree pharmacists and college degree assistant pharmacists, on the risk of chemical accidents of natural and anthropogenic nature, the properties of some widespread industrial toxic substances, the availability of antidotes and the proper first aid that may be given in case of poisoning with them. The principle of anonymity of the respondents is complied with. A stochastic (or random) selection method was used in which all units of the general aggregation have an equal chance to fall into the sample of the study.The means of the descriptive and comparative method along with the deductive analysis were applied.Results and discussion: 221 people were interviewed, 115 of which were master-degree pharmacists, working with pharmacies (52%) and 106 - students - college degree assistant pharmacists, trained in Disaster Medicine during their education at the Medical University of Varna (48%). The distribution of all respondents by gender is as follows: a total of 40 men (18.1%) and 181 women (81.9%) corresponding to those engaged in the profession. A statistically meaning differences were found into the preparedness of the two main groups of respondents. Overall analysis present relatively low level of readiness of the pharmacist to actively participate into the major chemical incident or chemical disaster medical support to the affected population.Conclusion: The results of the thoroughly performed analyses undoubtedly present the requirement for amelioration of the pharmacists education and training into university and college based undergraduation courses.