The ministry of health has dismissed reports that, there are indquate stock of Antiretrovrial (ARVs) in the country.
According to press statement from the ministry Health.
Full statement.
The Ministry of Health would like to inform the public that contrary to the information that has been makin grounds in the press and some publicc fora,the Country has adequate stocks of antiretroviralv(ARV) drugs to manage all the patients on treatment in Uganda. Stakeholders and patients country wide should be reassured that there are the right quantities of ARV drugcformulations for patients to continue their treatment without any interruptions. The Ministry of Health operates adual track supply chain for ARVs involving two largesectorsnamely the public sector represented by Government(PublicHealth Facilities) which are supplied through the NationalcMedical stores(NMS);and the private sector represented by the Private Notcfor Profit (PNFP),andcPrivate for Profit (PFP) health facilities supplied through the Joint MedicalStore(JMS)and MedicalAccessUganda Limited (MAUL). Over two-thirds of patients inUganda are supplied through the public sector supply chain through the National Medical Stores.
- The public sector commodities are primarily funded by the Government of Ugandacand theGlobal Fund to Fight AIDS,Tuberculosis(TB)andMalaria.The Private Sector commodities on the otherchand,are funded by the US Government through the PEPFAR program. However,In the last two years, the United States Government throughcPEPFARvhavevprovided some resources to bridge gaps in the public sector ARV supplies. During the month of September,the quantity of secondlineand some pediatricARV formulations for the public sector,fell below the acceptable buffer stock of 4months.This was are sult of some delays inthedeliveryofsomeofthe ARV orders. As are sult of this,we had to rationalize drug usage in the health facilities.This meant that instead of prescribing the normal two months drug refills,health workers reduced thecrefill period to one month.
- The Ministry of Health also worked with District Health Teams and Implementing Partners to redistributes among facilities in consideration of their stocklevels.
