Since the phone lines first started buzzing in March 2008, the National HIV and TB Healthcare Worker hotline has fielded almost 70 000 calls. From the Western Cape to Limpopo Province, the team of expert pharmacists on the other end of the line have serviced doctors, nurses and pharmacists practicing in public and private healthcare facilities in all corners of the country. An initiative of UCT’s Medicines Information Centre (MIC) – based in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology in the Department of Medicine – the hotline is considered a valuable, quick and easy-to-use resource for those in need. It is funded by the Global Fund – an organisation dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria, via South Africa’s national Department of Health (DoH), and the DoH’s Pharmacovigilance Centre for Public Health Programmes.

Read the full piece on UCT News.