Malaria, TB Drugs Have Arrived in Uganda, Health Official Says

The Ugandan government has imported at least 10 million doses of artemisinin-based combinations therapies (ACTs) and enough tuberculosis drugs to last between 18 and 24 months, Richard Ndyomugyenyi, the Ministry of Health's malaria control manager, said recently, the Daily Monitor reports. The supply of ACTs should last for four months.

"Since the beginning of the year the media has been awash with news of stock outs of essential medicines," the Daily Monitor reports.  The government used its own money to purchase the ACTs, Ndyomugyenyi said, adding that the first consignment was delivered in late March and the second came in earlier this month. "The medicines are already with the National Medical Stores (NMS) ready for distribution," he said.

A $1.2 million shipment from the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is expected in a few weeks and will be delivered by the World Health Organization in Geneva, he said. Ndyomugyenyi said the drug shortage was caused, in part, by health clinics not placing drug orders in a timely manner.

Last month, five nonprofit health organizations said that 50% of government health centers did not have enough medicine to treat common illnesses, including malaria, according to the Daily Monitor (Kirunda, Daily Monitor, 4/23).