Machinga hospitals run out of malaria drug, LA

Lives of people of Machinga, especially poor women and children are at risk as public hospitals in the district have run out of malaria drugs LA.

People in the districts told Nyasa Times that patients are now told to buy the medicine from private hospitals or pharmacies.

“We are poor, we cannot afford. If we fail to buy salt how can we afford these expensive medicine from private hospitals,” said 29 year old Mariam Amidu whose son was down with malaria.

Machinga district hospital spokesperson Clifton Ngozo said public hospitals in the district run out of the drug last month.

He said the district has not been supplied with LA for a long time.

“We are prescribing malaria patients with other medicine like quinine instead,” he said.

Public hospitals in Malawi get 90 per cent of its malaria drugs from the US government and US ambassador to Malawi, Virginia Palmer, recently threatened to withdraw the malaria drug aid unless the government deals with rampant malaria drug thefts in public hospitals.

Government is failing to meet demand for drugs in public hospitals due to budget cuts at the ministry of Health due to economic problems.

Atleast 6.3 million people suffered from malaria last year.