Global Fund drugs: Locked up containers contain only mosquito nets not TB, HIV drugs – Health Ministry

The Ministry of Health has debunked claims that tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDs medical supplies donated by the Global Fund are locked up at the Tema port.

According to the Ministry, the containers locked up at the port contain only mosquito nets and not TB and HIV drugs.

This response comes on the back of growing pressure and widespread condemnation of the government’s failure to clear the medical supplies that have been at the port for more than a year.The Global Fund for Community Foundation donated these medical supplies to Ghana free of charge, however, it has taken Ghana’s government and the Ministry of Health more than a year to clear the life-saving commodities.

Disturbingly, a huge chunk of the commodities is expected to expire by the first quarter of 2025, if not cleared immediately for use by patients.

The government is only required to cater for the taxes, levies, and port charges for the clearance of the commodities, which was estimated at US$3.6 million.Ernest Ortsin, Interim Chairman of the Global Fund Community, has expressed grave concerns about the government’s lack of interest in clearing essential medical commodities for tuberculosis (TB), HIV/AIDS and malaria treatment stuck at the port.

He described the continuous delay in clearing the remaining over 118 containers as “deliberate and intentional,” with no end in sight.

But Isaac Offei Baah, the Public Relations Officer at the Health Ministry, in response to the concerns of health-based civil society organisations (CSOs), in an interview on Accra-based Starr FM on Tuesday, reiterated that the locked-up containers mainly contain mosquito nets, stressing that all medical supplies were cleared as of April 2024.“Hopefully, we will clear the containers by next week. We also want to put it on record that we have only mosquito nets and we don’t have anything like HIV drugs or TB drugs, he said, adding, “but we don’t consider the type of drugs that we have, once it is something that has been given to the people of Ghana, we are working towards making it out and then putting it into good use.”

“So for clarity sake, we don’t have any HIV or TB commodities locked up at the border we’ve not cleared. HIV and TB drugs were cleared last April.”

“We still get donations from Global Fund. For all the drugs we received this year, processes are far advanced to clear almost all of them. Except for the mosquito net that we have there but we hope to clear it by next week.”“We need the mosquito nets because it is part of our preventive system so we don’t end up increasing malaria cases in the country,” he added