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Tanzania faces 40 pct shortage of essential medicines: minister

Xinhua, October 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

Tanzanian authorities said on Monday that the country was facing a 40 percent shortage of drugs needed in public hospitals.

The country's official medicine provider, Medical Stores Department (MSD), has only 60 percent stock of essential medicines in stores across the country, Ummy Mwalimu, the Minister for Health, told a news conference in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

Essential drugs are those that are considered essential for the treatment of common disease conditions in Tanzania in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations under Tanzania conditions.

However, the MSD has enough drugs for major diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, polio, cough, leprosy and Antiretrovirals for HIV/AIDS patients.

Mwalimu said the health budget has been going up for the past five years from 12.9 million U.S. dollars in 2011/12 financial year to 125.5 million dollars in the 2016/2017 financial year.

She said the government has signed a two-year contract with prime suppliers so that once MSD runs out of stock, it could get the drugs as quick as possible. Enditem