With the right care, people infected with HIV can lead long and healthy lives. But as with any life-long medical treatment, it is important to acknowledge and manage any side effects. Henry Zakumumpa from Makerere University School of Public Health tells us about the potential harms of new HIV therapies and the challenges faced by pharmacovigilance specialists in Uganda.

Tune in to find out:

• How dolutegravir-based HIV therapies compare to earlier regimens
• How pharmacovigilance data can help shape HIV treatment guidelines 
• Why we should empower patients to share concerns about their healthcare

Want to know more?

Hyperglycemia, insomnia and reduced libido were the most common side effects observed by Ugandan clinicians in patients taking dolutegravir.

Nurses are the backbone of HIV disease management in Uganda and could play an important role in pharmacovigilance activities as well.

Henry Zakumumpa’s research was supported by Uppsala Monitoring Centre in collaboration with CARTA, the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa, which is working to build up research capacity in public health.

The World Health Organization’s resources on HIV/AIDS include easily digestible information for patients, epidemiological data on disease spread, and current guidelines for prevention and treatment.

For more on African and patient-centred pharmacovigilance, check out these episodes from the Drug Safety Matters archive:

• Advancing pharmacovigilance in Africa
• Why we should listen to patients

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About UMC
Read more about Uppsala Monitoring Centre and how we work to advance medicines safety.

Access to medical products has increased considerably in Africa in recent years, but safety monitoring systems haven’t exactly kept pace and many African countries still struggle to address safety issues. We sat down with Eleni Aklillu and Abbie Barry of the PROFORMA project to learn about their efforts to strengthen pharmacovigilance capacity in East Africa – especially within public health programmes.

Tune in to find out:

• How comorbidities and genetic variation affect drug safety monitoring
• Why pharmacovigilance centres should strengthen their ties with academia
• How to apply the PROFORMA model elsewhere 

Want to know more?

• Low- and middle-income countries like the PROFORMA target nations face unique challenges in establishing robust pharmacovigilance systems, as described in this comprehensive review.
• PROFORMA’s baseline assessment of national pharmacovigilance systems in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania identified gaps and laid the groundwork for targeted interventions.
• Their subsequent assessment of pharmacovigilance capacity within the neglected tropical diseases programmes highlighted the urgent need for collaboration between those programmes and the national pharmacovigilance centres.
• You can read about PROFORMA’s accomplishments in more detail on Uppsala Reports and on the PROFORMA website, which also lists the consortium’s publications and upcoming events.

For more on the influence of genetic factors on drug response, revisit this interview with UMC’s pharmacogenetics specialist Qun-Ying Yue or this Uppsala Reports Long Read on pharmacogenomics research in Africa.

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About UMC
Read more about Uppsala Monitoring Centre and how we work to advance medicines safety.

People’s perception of risk can vary greatly from person to person, making it challenging for healthcare professionals to communicate benefits and harms of medicines in a balanced fashion. Alexandra Freeman from the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication discusses how to give patients the information they need to decide what's best for them.

Tune in to find out:

• Why people perceive risks so differently
• Why medical communicators should strive to inform rather than persuade
• How to communicate in a trustworthy fashion

Want to know more?

• There is no right way to communicate evidence to patients, but there are a few things you can do to avoid getting it wrong.
• Conventional communication techniques are good for persuading people – but when the aim is to inform, the principles of evidence communication should be applied instead.
• Graphics can help people translate abstract numbers into contextualised risks they can relate to, like these visuals that illustrate the risk of blood clots with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
• These evidence-based guidelines can help professional communicators illustrate the personalised risk of dying from COVID-19.
• The Winton Centre offers plenty of resources on risk and evidence communication, including free e-learning courses for healthcare professionals, the Risky Talk podcast with statistician David Spiegelhalter, and the RealRisk tool to help healthcare professionals and communicators extract the right statistics from academic papers.

For more on communicating benefits and harms in pharmacovigilance, revisit this Drug Safety Matters episode on vaccine safety communication.

Join the conversation on social media
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn and share your thoughts about the show with the hashtag #DrugSafetyMatters.

Got a story to share?
We’re always looking for new content and interesting people to interview. If you have a great idea for a show, get in touch!

About UMC
Read more about Uppsala Monitoring Centre and how we work to advance medicines safety.