Mozambique has ʽstockʼ of medicines for the next nine months, but is facing ‘challenges’ in getting the drugs to patients, Health Minister Ussene Isse admitted on Wednesday (12).
According to Lusa, the minister said that before the United States announced the suspension of support, ‘we had a ʽstockʼ of medicines for nine months and we are calm about that (…). In other words, in terms of the quantity of drugs, we’re comfortable. But now the challenge is for the medicines to reach the patients and this is fundamental, so we all have to work together to ensure that this happens.’
He was speaking as part of a visit to two drug factories in the southern province of Maputo, in which he challenged them to produce drugs with a view to reducing foreign dependency and supplying medicines to the National Health System: ‘(…) We have the conditions in Mozambique to solve the main health problems (…) there is a production line here that responds to our country’s disease profile. These units will be able to export to neighbouring countries, because they have quality,’ he stressed.
Mozambique was the member of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) that received the most aid from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2023, totalling 664.1 million dollars.
