Africa-Press – Uganda. The Ministry of Health has urged manufacturers of medical supplies including gloves and condoms, to maintain high quality standards to prevent infections.
According to the Commissioner for Pharmaceuticals and Natural Medicines in the Ministry of Health, Dr Neville Okuna Oteba, medicines and medical supplies must be safe, of good quality and affordable to help the country deal with the disease burden.
Dr Oteba who was among the officials from the Ministry of Health who were meeting a delegation from South Sudan’s Ministry of Heath at East Africa Medical Vitals Factory that manufactures gloves in Namanve industrial park on March 1, said producing high quality products does not only save lives, but also creates ready markets for products.
The delegation from South Sudan led by the Undersecretary of South Sudan’s Ministry of Health, Dr Victoria Anib Majur was in Uganda to find ways of importing medical supplies from the East Africa Medical Vitals factory.
“If you keep the quality, then you have the market. In pharmaceutical companies, quality is not tested in the final product; it is ensured right from the raw materials, production processes until when you get the final product out. It is not easy but you can attain it,” she said, adding, “We are happy that the quality lab at East Africa Medical Vitals is now up and running and you have qualified people to run it. That is the backbone of the facility.”
Dr Oteba also emphasized the importance of motivating the workforce for better results and promised continued government support. She noted that currently, the National Medical stores, Ministry of Health and private health practitioners were purchasing both surgical and examination gloves from this factory.
Dr Majur said her government is currently experiencing a shortage of medical supplies and that her ministry would soon start importing such supplies from Uganda.
Dr Majur said that South Sudan has been importing medical supplies such as gloves from China, a process which she said had been interrupted by the impact of Covid-19 that restricted movement of people from one country to another. She also said that the process of transporting the consumables has not only been costly, but also time consuming.
The Manager of Good Manufacturing Practices at the National Drug Authority, Mr Solomon Onen said that before a license is given to a manufacturer, several inspections are done to ensure that the right product is produced.
“We did several inspections and assessments of their compliance to good manufacturing practices and ISO standard 13485 for medical devices. We pointed out areas of improvement which they adequately addressed and we issued them with a license and a good manufacturing practice certificate,” he said.
Mr. Onen also said that NDA tested the first three batches of gloves that were produced by East Africa Medical Vitals and passed specifications before they were released for sale.
The chairman East Africa Medical Vitals, Mr Ben Kavuuya said the factory would soon start manufacturing syringes, condoms and blood bags but this would be done in a phased manner.
Mr Kavuuya said the company currently relies on imported latex to manufacture gloves said that if Ugandans embarked on rubber growing, the factory would provide ready market for their products.
Acording to the company’s managing director, Mr Brian Kavuuya, the company currently produces about 97 million pairs of gloves annually meeting 85 percent of Uganda’s needs and that the company had created about 200 jobs.
For More News And Analysis About Uganda Follow Africa-Press
