Ndalatando - The province of Cuanza-Norte has recorded a shortage of medicines for the treatment of tuberculosis, since December 2023, leaving 475 patients without assistance, the director of Health, Maria Filomena Wilson, said.
According to the director of the Provincial Health Office, the region is without medicines for patients undergoing outpatient treatment and inpatients receiving care in various units in the province.
Most patients are monitored by the Hospital Sanatório do Quilómetro Onze, on the outskirts of Ndalatando, dedicated to treating more serious cases of the disease.
The director was speaking at the launch of the Community Consultation Project “Sauidy ya Bixila”, Kimbundu term, which means “Health Has Arrived”, held on Wednesday, in the town of Pamba da Curva, municipality of Lucala (Cuanza-Norte).
She reported that the province has not received drugs for this disease since mid-2023, which caused stock to run out last December.
She highlighted that this fact worries the province's health authorities, who fear a possible worsening of the patients' situation.
She clarified that tuberculosis medicines are acquired by the Ministry of Health, which is currently taking steps with partners for their acquisition.
According to Filomena Wilson, medicines for the treatment of tuberculosis cannot be freely purchased on the markets.
“The acquisition is made by order from manufacturers, through the World Health Organization (WHO)”, explained the director.
Regarding “Saúde Chegou”, he said it is a community consultation project, an initiative by the Government of Cuanza-Norte that will expand to the 10 municipalities of the province, through mobile medical teams.
Last Wednesday, more than two hundred people benefited from the project with free medical consultations, medicines, rapid diagnostic tests for malaria and HIV/AIDS, measurement of blood pressure and blood glucose, among others.
The event was witnessed by the vice-governor of Cuanza-Norte for the Political, Economic and Social sector, Luzia José. DS/IMA/OHA/DOJ
