0
0 TB patients in Ghana risk dying or having multi-drug-resistant TB due to an imminent shortage of essential TB drugs at health facilities across the country.
Drugs are currently being circulated among the health facilities to meet patients’ needs.
Our checks at one of the major referral hospitals in the country revealed a complete stockout of the following essential drugs:
Isoniazid 300mg: 0
Ethambutol 400mg: 0
Clofazimine 100mg: 0
Pyridoxine 100mg: 0
There was very little stock left of the rest of the drugs, which can barely last the facility for a week:
They include:
Pyrazinamide 500mg: 4 packs
Isoniazid 100mg: 4 packs
Moxifloxacin 400mg: 6 packs
Linezolid 600mg: 8 packs
Paediatric Intensive: 9 packs
Paediatric Continuation: 9 packs
54-year-old Jojo, who has been on the medications for the past six months, has drugs that can last him for only three days before his next visit for more medication, and he is already worried.
Jojo
According to him, he usually gets a month’s supply of his drugs, but he received only 3 weeks supply on his last visit.
He said, “They have told us not to break, so I am worried. I don’t know if it’s because of the shortage that I was given less drugs. They should help us. It will worry paaa if the drugs get finished.”
Jojo is just one of over 76,000 Ghanaians suffering from TB and requiring medication for survival.
What is more alarming is that statistics from the Ghana Health Service indicate that more than 30 lives are lost to tuberculosis in Ghana each day, while more than 120 people get infected by the TB bacteria daily.
This imminent shortage of drugs in the country is due to the fact that global fund commodities for HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria remain locked up at the ports, despite assurances by the government of their clearance.
Out of the 185 remaining containers that have been at the port for over a year, only one contains TB medications, which the government is finding difficult to release, though it is aware of the imminent dangers.
The Executive Secretary of Stop TB Partnership Ghana, David Kwesi Afreh, says all efforts to make the government understand the gravity of the situation have proven futile.
“For now, where there is a facility and new cases come, you have to find a way to get drugs from the other facilities from one region to the other. The only thing the program can do is to manage what is left, ” he said.
He further noted that it has been promised upon promises from the government to release the drugs but to no avail.
“About 86,000 dollars or so have been paid by the Global Fund. Now its left with whatever processes that they have to do and the clearance hasn’t been done yet. For the past one month, we the TB community have been pushing for the clearance of just one of the containers that has the TB drug. Look many more people risk being infected if these patients develop multidrug resistance as a result of a break in medication,” he said.
By Sarah Apenkroh
The post Shortage of essential TB drugs imminent – Stop TB Partnership Ghana first appeared on 3News.
