OA-03-520-21 Availability of diagnostic services and essential medicines for non-communicable respiratory diseases in African countries

Background: The burden of asthma and chronic ob- structive pulmonary disease (COPD) is increasing and has become a worldwide public health issue. In Africa the management of these diseases is challenging and likely affected by the availability of appropriate diagnos- tic tests and essential medicines. The aim of this study was to explore the availability of diagnostic services and essential medicines for non-communicable respiratory diseases (NCRDs) in African countries. Design/Methods: Questionnaires were self-completed by healthcare workers attending the Pan African Tho- racic Society Methods in Epidemiology, Clinical and Operations Research (PATS MECOR) and International Multidisciplinary Programme to Address Lung Health and TB in Africa (IMPALA) meeting. Informaton was obtained on the availability of diagnostic spirometry and essential medicines for asthma and COPD at their healthcare facility. Data were analysed by simple de- scriptive statistics and open answer questions coded. Results: 37 questionnaires were returned representing 13 different African countries. The availability of diagnos- tic spirometry was 73.0%, although within this sample 33.3% faced sporadic availability due to maintenance is- sues. Among several factors, the most common reasons for non-availability were lack of knowledge about spi- rometry and it‘s utility in practice. The availability of essential medicines ranged from 37.8% for ICS-LABA inhalers to 100% for prednisolone 5mg tablet. Medi- cines were sometimes unavailable due to supply chain difficulties.

Conclusions: Availability of diagnostic spirometry and essential medicines for COPD and asthma in these Af- rican countries is varied and generally below World Health Organisation (WHO) targets. The results add to the few available studies on the availability of these resources in Africa. Conclusions based on meeting at- tendees, from mainly urban and national level facili- ties, may not be generalisable within African settings. However, thematic analysis revealed common barriers to availability that could inform much-needed corrective strategies if explored more thoroughly in each country.