The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda |THE INDEPENDENT | The rampant stock out of Magnesium Sulphate, a drug prescribed for pregnant mothers with preeclampsia is not due to lack of drugs at National Medical Stores or at health facilities.
Morris Seru, the Commissioner Pharmacy Division at the Ministry of Health says that many health facilities do not stock the drug which is also on the list of essential medicines because their health workers don’t know how to administer it and as a result they don’t order it and in the end the women who need it fail to get it.
“It’s not available at facilities because it’s not ordered. Uptake for the drug has really been low. When it was first procured 6 to 7 years ago stocks expired at the stores and we decided to reduce on the stocks to be in line with the available demand”, Seru says.
According to Seru, orders for the drug are only picked up now after a local NGO trained health workers on how to reconstitute it. The treatment is delivered by administering a drug in the veins followed by another injection delivered in the muscle immediately and thereafter a health worker is supposed to give injections every after four hours on alternating buttocks.
The directive previously has been that if a health worker registers a case at a Health Center III, they deliver the first dose and refer the patient to a Health Center IV or hospitals for further care.
Dr Charles Olaro, the Commissioner Clinical Services at the Ministry of Health says only a few cases of pre-eclampsia are registered at higher health facilities like Health centre IVs and hospitals.
However, he noted that the country is now expecting new doses to the tune of 170,000 from Global Fund which have been financed from the $11.2million budget for Reproductive and Maternal Health Commodities that the fund has donated to Uganda.
Ministry of Health figures indicate that 6% of maternal deaths recorded in the country annually are due to pre-eclampsia a condition when a pregnant woman experiences sudden weight gain, severe headache and vision changes among others.
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