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COVID-19 is a viral disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans manifests as mild symptoms to severe respiratory failure. The development of vaccines against coronaviruses faces several inherent challenges in its establishment as safe and effective, but also in production and distribution. Therefore, supportive treatments are more achievable in a short period of time in controlling the pandemic. Treatment is mainly based on controlling symptoms and inhibiting viral replication. Antivirals are more effective the earlier they are administered during the course of the disease, preferably starting from the first days of evolution; the benefit/risk ratio is the higher the patient has a higher risk of severe evolution. That is why antivirals are primarily administered to patients with nonsevere forms of the disease who have risk factors for severe evolution. Immunomodulatory drugs enhance the immune response against pathogens and may offer a therapeutic approach to treatment of viral diseases, having a significant prophylactic activity in the acute respiratory viral infection. There is a strong scientific rationale which suggest that viral diseases respond to immunomodulatory drugs. People protected with antivirals, immunomodulatory drugs or vaccines often have the disease in a milder or asymptomatic form. In Romania, the latest treatment protocol for COVID-19 includes immunomodulatory, antiviral and anti-inflammatory medication.

Access to medicines is a fundamental human right and is a vital element of health care. Over the last 10 years, there has been a tendency for the global discontinuation of drug supply to become a major problem, with an increasing exacerbation of this phenomenon in the European Union, with a potential negative impact on patient health care due to multiple causes (manufacturing problems, drug pricing policy, parallel export etc.). National Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices of Romania (NAMMDR) argues, in full agreement with European Medicines Agency, that in this situation effective collaboration between the various stakeholders and regulators is required, and also a good communication between manufacturers, distributors and authorities. It is a point of view that NAMMDR supported in the working meetings with the representatives of the marketing authorization holders/ manufacturers, wholesale distribution, patient associations. According to pharmacists, situations have been reported in which patients tend to stock up on medicines, and this puts additional pressure on existing stocks. In this work, we intended to draw attention to the medicine shortages issue which has a huge impact on national health systems, on patients′ safety, on public health and healthcare professionals.

Considering that microbial resistance to antibiotics is becoming an increasingly widespread problem, burn management, which usually includes the use of topical antimicrobial dressings, is still facing difficulties regarding their efficiency to ensure rapid healing. In this context, the main objective of this research is to include new oxytetracycline derivatives in polymeric-film-type dressings for the treatment of wounds caused by experimentally induced burns in rats. The structural and physico-chemical properties of synthesized oxytetracycline derivatives and the corresponding membranes were analyzed by FT-IR and MS spectroscopy, swelling ability and biodegradation capacity. In vitro antimicrobial activity using Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains and pathogenic yeasts, along with an in vivo study of a burn wound model induced in Wistar rats, was also analyzed. The newly obtained polymeric films, namely chitosan-oxytetracycline derivative membranes, showed good antimicrobial activity noticed in the tested strains, a membrane swelling ratio (MSR) of up to 1578% in acidic conditions and a biodegradation rate of up to 15.7% on day 7 of testing, which are important required characteristics for the tissue regeneration process, after the production of a burn. The in vivo study proved that chitosan-derived oxytetracycline membranes showed also improved healing effects which contributes to supporting the idea of using them for the treatment of wounds caused by burns.

Background and objectives: Kisspeptin, also named metastin, showed important roles in initiating the secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and is an essential factor in the development of polycystic ovaries syndrome (PCOS). Several research studies noticed associations between kisspeptin levels and patients with anovulatory cycles due to PCOS with an increased LH/FSH ratio. The aim of our study was to bring scientific evidence regarding the correlation between high kisspeptin and luteinizing hormone values in subfertile women due to PCOS. Materials and Methods: A prospective case-control study was conducted in “Elena Doamna” Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology between 4 January 2021 and 1 March 2022. All patients agreed to participate in our study, had ages between 18 and 45 years old, and had a body mass index between 18.5 and 30 kg/m2. The study group consisted of subfertile patients with PCOS and menstrual disturbances, including amenorrhea or oligomenorrhea. The control group consisted of healthy patients with ovulatory cycles and no other reproductive or endocrinology pathologies. During the follicular phase of their menstrual cycle, patients had blood samples taken with the dosage of kisspeptin, LH, FSH, estradiol, insulin, glycemic levels, testosterone, and prolactin. Pelvic ultrasounds and clinical examinations were performed as well. Results: Significant differences were observed in kisspeptin, LH, FSH, and estradiol levels between patients with PCOS and the control group. After the univariate analysis, PCOS was significantly associated with increased kisspeptin, increased LH, and decreased FSH. There was no significant association between PCOS, estradiol, prolactin, and insulin. Conclusions: kisspeptin serum values are higher in subfertile PCOS patients, supporting the hypothesis that an over-stimulation of the KISS1 system might cause the hyper-stimulation of the HPG-axis.

The effect of different heterogeneous and homogeneous photocatalytic systems on the oxidative degradation of mepiquat chloride in aqueous solutions was investigated. In the case of heterogeneous reactions, the influence of five factors was studied: the type of catalyst, photocatalyst concentration, pH, pesticide concentration, and the presence of H2O2 and/or Fe3+. For homogeneous catalysis, other factors were studied: the oxidising agent and the light source. Nearly complete degradation of mepiquat chloride was obtained after about 180 minutes in the presence of an acid medium (pH3) using a UV-A lamp and TiO2P-25 catalyst (0.5 g/L), for an initial pesticide concentration of 10 ppm. Degradation rates corresponding to homogeneous photocatalysis were lower compared to those corresponding to the use of TiO2 as the photocatalyst.

Introduction The patient satisfaction questionnaires in literature are according to the community pharmacies services in the authors’ countries and not all have psychometric reports to support the results. We designed a questionnaire specific to the services of community pharmacies in Romania to evaluate the level of patient satisfaction.Methods We carried out a cross-sectional study on voluntary patients. The questionnaire consisted of 22 items, grouped into three domains corresponding to patient satisfaction with pharmacies, pharmaceutical staff and medication availability, and four subdomains related to pharmaceutical staff skills. The 5-point Likert scale was used. Statistical analysis was done in SPSS 27.0.Results The Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.861. The Inter-rater Agreement was 72.0%, the Item Content Validity was 97.6% and the completeness index was 100%. The factor analysis indicated 6 factors (Eigen values >1.0). The 809 patients had a median of overall satisfaction score of 3.77; the median was 4.0 regarding satisfaction score with pharmaceutical staff skills. Respondents characteristics varied the patient’s satisfaction level (p ≤ 0.05).Conclusions The reliability and validity of the questionnaire have been demonstrated. Overall patient satisfaction with community pharmacy services had a moderate level, but the attitude and confidence in the pharmacist had a high level of satisfaction.

The photocatalytic activity of zinc oxide, prepared by precipitation followed by calcination, was tested using rhodamine 6G as a rebel organic compound. The experiments were planned in order to allow an optimization procedure, by investigating the effects of different parameters such as the preparative method of the solid, amount of photocatalyst, pH of the reaction medium, and initial concentration of the dye. The results were compared with those obtained on P-25 Titania, and one of the samples had similar performances in terms of dye degradation degree, but needed higher pH values to prevent the photocatalyst degradation.

Background and Aim: Pharmacists in community pharmacies are experts in drug therapy, being in direct and regular contact with patients. Their beliefs about drugs, the need for medication therapy and medication adherence can be influenced by pharmacists' advice. Thus, we aim to develop and validate a questionnaire about drug therapy to be applied to patients. Materials and Methods: The questionnaire was based on the “Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire” and the “Medication Adherence Report Scale” of Horne et al. The response scale was a five-category Likert type. The quality parameters of the self-report scale were highlighted through sequential exploratory study of the mixed method. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 809 patients from Romania, aged between 18 and 87 years (mean age 35.81±13.52), 190 men and 619 women, between January and June 2023. The questionnaire with 14 items was completed on google form [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdzU2tQQKphyqbHNbDWOTzWL-Hf5XBbUA6FeU9rZFf0MLlPLQ/viewform]. Statistical analysis was done in SPSS 27.0. Results: Good values show Inter-rater Agreement (72%), Item Content Validity for clarity (92%) and relevance (88%). Very good values indicate Scale Content Validity for clarity (96.2%), relevance (93.9%) and completeness (100%). Cronbach's alpha shows an acceptable internal consistency of the items (α=0.795). The factorial analysis highlights three factors (with Eigen values > 1.0), corresponding to the domains of the questionnaire. The mean score of beliefs about medicines is 3.49±0.57; the mean score of beliefs about drug treatment is 2.85±0.95; the average score of medication adherence is 2.67±0.73; significant statistical differences were found depending on the characteristics of the patients (p≤0.05). Conclusions: The self-report scale of patients' beliefs about drug therapy met the quality parameters for our results in order to be sustainable. Patients were partially convinced of the importance of drug therapy, they were not convinced of the need for treatment, but they were adherent to the prescribed drugs.

The world's applications of the Internet in public health services have expanded rapidly over the past two decades. In Romania, the online pharmacy was regulated and implemented in April 2019. The study aimed to validate a questionnaire about online pharmacy services and to assess patient satisfaction with these services. This cross-sectional descriptive observational qualitative study was conducted on 747 patients, 159 men and 588 women, aged between 18 and 85 years (mean age 31.44±11.324), who accessed online pharmacy services in Romania. The lot was made of convenience and "snowball" sampling. Patients completed an online questionnaire on google form [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfSRGTcemtGLmsjfALAxKAMjnKMdt4DnCY0kauWi5cQQ8HAvw/viewform], with 10 items, structured in two sections regarding satisfaction with online pharmacy services and with financial aspects, between June 2022 and April 2023. The questionnaire is an adaptation to the specifics of Romanian pharmaceutical services of Johnson et al.'s questionnaire. The response scale of the questions was a five-category Likert type, ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. The questionnaire was previously validated and the statistical analysis was done in SPSS 27.0 software. The Inter-rater Agreement index was 61.9%; Scale Content Validity was 87.6% for clarity and 84.8% for relevance; the completeness index was 95.2%; Bartlett's Test of Sphericity was 157.451 with 45 degrees of freedom (p=0.000); the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin statistic was 0.667; The factorial analysis revealed 2 factors (with Eigen values >1.0), which are responsible for 71.3% of the variation of the 10 investigated items; The alpha-Cronbach coefficient for the entire questionnaire was 0.897. The mean score of the questionnaire was 3.8240±0.60278 and statistically significant differences were found according to the age groups (p=0.003) of the respondents and the frequency of accessing the online pharmacy (p

In the last 20 years, probiotics have attracted specialists attention being conducted over 50 studies investigating the probiotics use in human diseases treatment. These studies revealed that the probiotics potential is ranging from constipation to hepatic encephalopathy. Probiotics are able to normalize the intestinal microbial ecosystem, to improve the gut barrier function, to inhibit potential pathogens and to modulate the immune and anti-inflammatory activities. Further studies need to clarify the optimal effective dosage for specific diseases, the most effective probiotic for distinctive diseases, to emphasize the interactions with food, and to determine if single-species probiotics would provide helth benefits.