National Medical Stores (NMS) says it may not deliver malarial drugs and hepatitis B vaccines to health facilities in January next year due to lack of funds.
According to the NMS general manager, Moses Kamabare, the funds shortage came after government decided to divert money meant for artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACTs) to instead procure antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.
The decision to divert the money was the result of a request by development partners to government to get more funds to procure ARVs after the introduction of the HIV/Aids test and treatment strategy.
Kamabare explained that when the finance ministry failed to get the said funds from other sources, it was decided that money meant for ACTs be diverted to procure ARVs.
“We are telling government that if they do not put in more money, we might have a massive stock out of ACTs in the second quarter of this financial year. It’s the biggest concern because of all the diseases that we have in this country, both the outpatients and inpatients, the biggest number have malaria,” Kamabare told journalists gathered at Imperial Royale hotel for an NMS-media meeting on Friday.
The ministry of Health estimates that malaria accounts for 27 per cent of all deaths in the country. In Africa, Uganda is one of the top ten countries with high malarial mortality deaths.
“They have protected money for about 800,000 or 900,000 Ugandans that have HIV/Aids and left out the rest of the 35 million Ugandans who need ACTs,” Kamabare said.
The NMS boss further warned that the stores didn’t have the Shs 10bn needed to procure hepatitis B vaccines for the second and third vaccination exercises. He noted that although NMS has some buffer stock, it will not be able to cover all districts and sustain completion of the vaccination exercise.
“If you miss the second and third doses, then you are sure all the investments you have made have gone to waste. It is as if you wouldn’t have carried out the vaccination,” said Kamabare.
Karamoja sub-region has the highest infection rates with 24 per cent followed by northern Uganda (20 per cent). The health ministry estimates that 3.5 million people are chronically ill with hepatitis B.
Efforts to reach the Health ministry for comment were futile as the known numbers of the public relations officials were off until the time we went to press.
However, the finance ministry’s public relations officer, Jim Mugunga, clarified that the ministry had forwarded all the funds due to NMS. He said that money from the ministry is disbursed according to the budget.
“Money cannot be released for them to buy only one item. A budget is allocated and they get the money as budgeted for. I am surprised that they are saying that,” said Mugunga.
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