Following yesterday’s story on the quinine shortage at Angau hospital, authorities responsible for the hospital and the provinces’ pharmaceutical supplies have responded saying the shortage is limited only to Angau.
Lae’s Area Medical Store has conducted an audit and found rural health centers still have limited supplies of quinine.
This morning staff at the Angau Hospital pharmacy went with at least two urban clinics and collected about 100 vials of much needed Quinine. That supply will probably last another month before it runs out again.
At the Medical Store, staff could not speak on camera about the shortage. They referred this to Health Secretary, not in Lae, but in Port Moresby for an official comment. But unofficially, they said that an audit has been conducted and that records showed that the shortage experienced was only in Angau Hospital.
Yesterday, the nurses at the children’s ward expressed that the shortage was causing serious problems in terms of patient treatments.
The Quinine has been sourced from the Medical Kits supplied to the health Centre’s. They won’t use them as the first line of treatment and the Angau pharmacy is calling on all those health centre’s to help ease their supply problems until the regular supply from Port Moresby resumes.
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