Some public healthcare service delivery institutions are facing challenges to assist malaria patients due to the unavailability of malaria test kits.
The kits are also known as Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests (MRDT) in medical terms.
Our investigations have revealed that medical personnel are asking patients, who are suspected of having malaria, to buy their own kits from private pharmacies before they can be assisted.
“Unfortunately, I have checked at several drug stores in Mangochi but I cannot find the test kits,” said Amos Kadzanja who, on Thursday last week, visited Mangochi District Hospital to have his child tested for malaria.
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A medical worker at Mangochi District Health Office confirmed that the facility had run out of malaria test kits, such that most suspected patients were being sent back home.
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“Alternatively, we are taking the blood samples to the laboratory to be tested under the microscope. The development has affected Mangochi District Hospital, which serves as a referral hospital for about 1.3 million people,” the source said.
On his part, Director of Social and Health Services for Mangochi, Henry Chibowa Junior, told The Daily Times that the facility had been facing erratic supply of MRDT since June this year.
“But it’s a national issue which can easily be handled by the National Malaria Control Programme. In the meantime, we are trying to source the items from neighboring facilities that might have been overstocked,” he said.
Spot checks showed that facilities in Machinga, Zomba, Phalombe, Salima, Balaka and Ntcheu were facing a similar problem, such that suspected malaria patients were sweating to access treatment.
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Malaria continues to be a major public health issue in Malawi, with an estimated 6.2 million cases being registered every year, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Further to that, malaria is a major cause of morbidity and mortality across all age groups—accounting for over 30 percent of all out-patient visits in hospitals.
In an interview, Lumbani Munthali, who is the head of the National Malaria Control Programme, confirmed that the country had been facing some challenges in dealing with malaria cases due to what he called increasing cases of malaria.
The country, he said, has been recording increased cases of malaria this year, a development that has culminated in increased demand for malaria testing services.
He said Malawi conducted the last mass distribution of mosquito nets three years ago, increasing the likelihood that some of the nets might have been worn out, a development health officials suspect is exposing people to mosquito bites leading to malaria.
“But the government has already procured over 11.5 million mosquito nets, which will be distributed across the country very soon,” he said.
Munthali said the current shortage of MRDT has been largely attributed to third party logistics.
In this case, he said, companies that were trusted to deliver the items faced some challenges because the distribution of commodities had been integrated to include HIV and Aids commodities and other diagnostic materials.
He said distribution of July items has already started.
The country started the July distribution on the 12th, raising hope that the situation would normalise within three weeks because the items have already started trickling into some districts.
“So, we are distributing over two million malaria test kits. So, we are expecting that those who had low supply will be getting [them] soon. By the end of July, we are distributing another 1.9 million [nets], which were already procured with funding from USaid [United States Agency for International Development] and, in August, there is another consignment of five million more test kits arriving into the country,” Munthali said.
