World Pharmacists Day celebrated today

On Thursday, the Pharmacists and the Pharmacy students around World are celebrating the World Pharmacists Day. World Pharmacists Day highlights the role of pharmacists in Public Health and the positive benefits they offer when it comes to health.

Each year on this day welcomes a new theme, the theme of this year is: ‘Access to pharmacists is access to health’.Access to medicines is a major issue in many parts of the world and pharmacists play a key role in improving access to medicines.

According to Katam Sai Kumar, the President of DPA (Doctor of Pharmarcy Association) in Hyderabad encourages all its members and Pharmacy Professionals to get involved in activities and campaigns to showcase the good work they do in helping to improve the health of people around the world. The same includes giving blood donation camps, Patient counseling, holding exhibitions, conferences, awareness

Sai Kumar said, "Government should utilise the professional expertise of pharmacists". International experience shows that expanding the role of the pharmacist improves public health. In other countries, pharmacists are used as a valuable and integral resource in the delivery of additional services including the management of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, vaccination against several infectious illnesses, medicine use reviews and the treatment of minor ailments.

It is worth mentioning here that the World Pharmacists Day was the brainchild of the (FIP) International Pharmaceutical Federation. At the 2009 FIP Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, the Turkish Pharmacists Association suggested to annually celebrate a World Pharmacists Day, to be organised on September 25 (the day that FIP was founded in 1912).This proposal was unanimously accepted by the Council and since 2010, World Pharmacists Day has been celebrated.