Pretoria - Now is not the right time for people to miss treatment and medication, as the Delta variant of the Covid-19 circulates across South Africa, advised pharmacist Joy Steenkamp.
The expert from Medipost Pharmacy said it was important now than ever for people to limit all opportunities for the virus to spread while ensuring other health conditions remained well controlled.
He said: “In light of the new information emerging about the Delta variant, which the World Health Organization has described as the most highly transmissible form of the Sars-CoV-2 virus identified to date, we need to work together to urgently reduce chances for the virus to spread, to flatten the third wave.”
This as, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the Delta variant is believed to be 97% more transmissible than the original Covid-19 strain.
Some patients said they were not taking chances, with Nelly Sotwana from Mabopane saying she took chronic medication for her diabetes religiously, and would not want to make the mistake of missing medication when people were dying from Covid-19. Her niece Madimpho Mashabela said: “I take chronic medication and I also have asthma which affects my breathing, so I cannot afford to default on my own treatment plan. In times like these we as ill people need to ensure that we look after ourselves.”
Steenkamp said it was important to remember that even people who have already been vaccinated could get Covid-19 and pass it on to others even though they may not experience symptoms and it appeared that they were much less likely to become as severely ill.
He said since the start of the pandemic convenient free medicine delivery was crucial to help keep hundreds of thousands of people’s chronic treatment on track, without the need for them to visit a pharmacy in person.
He advised the public that for medication to work best, it must be as simple as possible for patients to adhere to their prescribed treatment.
Pretoria News