NEWS: Jinja runs out of Malaria, TB drugs

Jinja runs out of Malaria, TB drugs

Tuesday, April 21, 2009 from MONITOR ONLINE

Hundreds of lives are at risk after hospitals in Jinja ran out of Coartem, the recommended anti-malaria drug, the District Director of Health Services, Sarah Byakika, has said.

Drugs meant to treat tuberculosis have also run out, causing a potentially-fatal disruption to more than 1,200 patients on the district’s TB drug programme.

Interruption of TB medication increases the chance of resistance to the drugs, raising concerns of a future epidemic of virtually untreatable TB. “For two weeks hospitals in Jinja have not had Coartem,” Ms Byakika said.

“We pick our drugs from Buluba Mission Hospital but they are also yet to receive any and that has created a problem for us. In some units it’s out of stock completely. We are now falling back on quinine or other drugs which were phased out due to patients’ resistance problems,” she added.

Changing treatment regimes for patients could make both malaria and tuberculosis drug-resistant and lead to deaths, officials have warned.Ms Byakika said the district had resorted to asking for drugs from local health service NGOs, including The Aids Support Organisation (Taso) “because we cannot stop treatment for the patients already undergoing medication”.

Other patients, she said, have been referred to health centres outside the district for the drugs.The population in seven districts in the region depend on Jinja Hospital for advanced medical attention so the drug shortage is likely to affect thousands more people. National Medical Stores publicist Hamis Kaheru yesterday acknowledged shortages of drugs..

“Recently, there was a shortage of malaria drugs because government had been let down by Global Fund. However, we had issued hospitals drugs to last them for two months and unfortunately we expect rains to trigger off Malaria leading to low stocks. Hospitals ought to act fast amd make requisitions,” he said.

About two weeks ago, Gulu District also faced the TB, anti-retroviral (ARVs) and Malaria drugs shortage. However, the country last week received the first consignment of TB drugs worth Shs33m from Global Fund.