Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambican health authorities have received two million doses of the tuberculosis vaccine (BCG), enough for six months, which they will begin distributing throughout the country on Tuesday.
“Today, June 30, we received the BCG vaccine in the amount of two million doses. The vaccine will now begin the packaging process for shipment to the provinces,” Brayton Maculuve, from the Expanded Vaccination Program of the Ministry of Health of Mozambique (MISAU), told journalists in Maputo.
The new supply addresses a shortage of the BCG vaccine in Mozambican health units, previously confirmed by health authorities, who said they would send teams to the provinces to vaccinate minors in the communities which have been affected by the shortage.
“This is to maximize recovery, that is, the recovery of children who were left without vaccination during this period of disruption. (…) We had already communicated this to the press, in the two weeks that we were without vaccines. […] Allow me to explain that this vaccine, in terms of eligibility, that is, the period in which the child should take the vaccine, is expected to be between zero, in this case, from the moment of birth, up to 23 months,” Maculuve explained.
“This means that a child who was born two weeks ago is still within the period to receive the vaccine and there is no risk from an epidemiological point of view,” he added.
The Mozambican health authorities say that the two million doses that arrived yesterday grants capacity for six months of vaccination, to begin on July 1, with the packaging and shipping process to the provinces.
Responding to questions from journalists regarding the constant shortages of medicine stocks, the person responsible for the government’s vaccination program admitted that managing vaccines in the country is a “complex process”, but added that the government replenishes them quarterly.
“When we talk about the shortage of about two weeks, we need to understand that we have several levels of vaccine stocks. We have stock at the central warehouse, but the absence of the vaccine at the central warehouse does not mean that it is absent at the provincial warehouse, so there are several levels. We may not have the vaccine at the provincial warehouse, but we may have it at the health unit,” Maculuve explained in response to persistent questions.
On May 28, Lusa reported that Mozambique spent almost €130 million on purchasing medicines and medical supplies in the first five months of the year, with the government guaranteeing that there would be sufficient stock until the end of the year.
“In the first five months of this year, we distributed medicines and medical products worth around 9.4 billion meticais [€129.6 million] for the main diseases in our country, namely diarrheal diseases, respiratory diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, tuberculosis, malaria, among others,” Minister of Health, Ussene Isse, said at the time.
Despite having guaranteed that there was “stock,” the minister had also said that there were already restrictions on some medicines following the vandalism of medicine warehouses during the post-election protests.
“[There are] some restrictions on medicines for the cardiovascular system, the nervous system and some anaesthetics, but I can say that stocks will be replenished in the coming months of June and July,” the health minister added.
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