Gulu District Health Department has halted the supply of antimalarial Drugs to Village Health Teams (VHTs) due to drug shortage that has hit various health facilities in the district.
The district has been relying on over 500 VHTs trained within the communities to carry emergency treatment on malaria patients before referrals to health facilities since the epidemic struck in April last year.
The District Malaria Focal Person Mr John Opwonya told Acholi Times in an interview last week that they suspended supply of the antimalarial drugs to VHTs until they get enough supply from the National Medical Store (NMS).
“We are at the moment treating malaria patients at the health facilities only. We have run short of Coartem drugs which we can no longer give to the VHTs. We expect supply to resume after we have received enough antimalarial drugs,” Mr Opwonya said.
Mr Opwonya observed that on average a VHT is given 10 dosages of antimalarial drugs which they use in cases of emergency where patients are far from health facilities.
He explained that the suspension of drug supply to the VHTs is worrying since most cases of malaria are registered within the villages among children and expectant mothers adding that many fatalities could be registered.
“We have communicated to NMS of the challenges we are having in handling malaria treatment, cases are high but the drugs are now limited. Drugs supplied are to take two months but this time we may not make it till end of two months,” Mr Opwonya said.
Dr Nathan Onyachi, the Director Gulu Regional Referral Hospital acknowledged that the hospital has been hit by drug shortage adding that they are contemplating on making emergency order to NMS.
“It’s challenging now to treat malaria patients at the facility. We have limited drugs but consumption of the drugs has doubled in the past two weeks, what we have is little and may not reach the supply period,” Dr Onyachi said.
Dr Onyachi said that over the weekend alone, 70 percent of outpatients who visited the facility tested positive for Malaria, a trend he said is worrying.
Statistics
According to records from the district health department, malaria cases has been on the rise with at least 7,000 cases registered in the last three weeks with death cases ranging between 5-6 every week.
Statistics released in February this year by the district health department showed an upsurge in Malaria cases by more than 17,000 ten times higher than April last year when it first hit the district.
Since April last year, more than 72 children have died from Malaria mostly children and expectant mothers.
The Health ministry since last year put up a spirited fight in combatting malaria in the region including dispatching 70 health workers to Gulu district out of 374 sent to the North to fight the malaria epidemic.