The Observer (Kampala)
1 April 2009
editorial
It is a shame that the Uganda Government cannot maintain enough stock of essential drugs such as those needed for tuberculosis.
It is embarrassing that Uganda, whose economy grew at 9% in 2007, according to President Yoweri Museveni, is borrowing TB drugs from Kenya.
It is outrageous that the Ministry of Health has to rely on the mercy and goodwill of the Geneva-based Global Fund to fight Tuberculosis and Malaria to purchase essential drugs for Ugandans.
Recently, the Director General of Health Services, Dr. Sam Zaramba, was quoted in the media urging members of the public to use drugs sparingly as stocks were running out.
He said the Global Fund was supposed to send money on March 9, 2009 to replenish the dwindling stocks but it had not done so! Dr. Zaramba also blamed the waning stocks on the global economic crunch.
During the World Health assembly in 1977, Uganda made a commitment to ensure that essential drugs are available in all public health facilities. Essential drugs are those used to treat common illnesses, which are among the highest causes of death. The drugs are selected with due regard to disease prevalence, evidence on efficiency and safety, and comparative effectiveness. For instance, in Uganda TB is a major killer, exacerbated by HIV/AIDS.
In 2001, during the Abuja Declaration in Nigeria, Uganda made yet another commitment to spend at least 15% of its national budget on health. Eight years later, Uganda spends 9.6% of the national budget on health. It's this percentage that goes into research, drug purchase and other recurrent expenditures. Uganda has failed to meet its international obligations!
It is difficult to fathom that a government worth its salt cannot replenish its drug stocks and has to rely on the Global Fund to do this.
Yet the same government can lavish as much as Shs1billion on just 8 government officials and their spouses to seek medical treatment abroad for ailments which could easily have been sorted out here if the necessary drugs and equipment were in place.
Where are the government's priorities?
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