Botswana has declared a public health emergency, with President Duma Boko saying the national medical supply chain collapsed due to depleted government coffers and steep cuts in aid from the United States.
The announcement came on Monday after the Ministry of Health and Wellness warned earlier this month that the system was “severely strained” with $75m owed to private health facilities and suppliers.
It cited shortages of medicines for a range of illnesses, including hypertension, cancer, diabetes, tuberculosis, asthma, mental and sexual health, and stated that elective surgeries were postponed.
The Health Ministry also said there were shortages of dressings and sutures.
“The medical supply chain, as run by central medical stores, has failed,” President Boko said in a televised address on Monday. “This failure has led to a severe disruption to health supplies countrywide.”
The Ministry of Finance had earlier approved 250 million pula ($18.7m) in emergency funding for procurement, said Boko, adding that the military would oversee the distribution of emergency medicines, with the first shipments dispatching immediately from the capital, Gaborone, with priority given to deprived rural areas.
“The current prices [for medicine] often are inflated five to 10 times. Under the current economic conditions, this scenario is not sustainable,” Boko added.
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