Medicines to Clinic in Zambia

Report from the Field

We received a fantastic report from our partners at Bright Hope and Samfya District Pharmacy in Zambia. Read below for the full report of how our supplies are helping those in need:

“A fifth shipment of medicine arrived safely in March at Samfya District Pharmacy (Zambia), donated by Giving Children Hope, in conjunction with partners Bright Hope, Willow Creek Community Church, and Samfya Community of Care Providers. Mark and Carmen Brubacher, Bright Hope staff recently visited and conducted a field report of the clinic to assess the progress of helping the needy children and adults.

Upon speaking with Matina Ngoma, head district pharmacist, she stated the medications will be distributed to thirty-one health centers throughout the district and all are needed especially Quinine (used in complicated cases of malaria) and Sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine (primarily used to treat uncomplicated cases of malaria in pregnant women with the least amount of side effects to both the mother and fetus). Both of those medications are extremely expensive and the pharmacy would have to pay for them from their limited monthly budget, if they did not receive them in the donated shipment. In previous shipments, Quinine and Sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine usually run out in one month, but with the increased donated amount they last approximately three months.

Other drugs received have been important too. Amoxicillin is used very quickly for children and adults with pneumonia and as a measles prophylaxis. Zinc, Oral Rehydration Supplement and Metronidazole are also critical in helping infants and children with diarrhea symptoms related to dysentery from poor water conditions. The topical creams hydrocortisone and clotrimazole have been very beneficial in the treatment of skin rashes, especially during the recent measles outbreak.

Matina stated that all the medications are greatly appreciated, however Doxycycline and Mebendazole are the least used and they are currently overstocked. She also stated the Samfya Stage II clinic has already picked up their monthly drug supply from the District pharmacy, including the much needed donated drugs, and most of the other 30 clinics will receive theirs during the week of April 11th. Most general supplies are for a two-month time frame unless the District Clinic Pharmacy is low. When this happens the clinics will only receive a one month supply of medications and remaining stock will be kept at the District pharmacy to be used for the most critical cases.

Rodney Kabala, head pharmacist for Samfya Stage II clinic who also manages the budget for the clinic, said they receive very little money for medical supplies. At the top of his list are Quinine, which costs K500,000 ($106) for 1000 tablets, and Fansidar, which costs K250,000 ($53) for 1000 tablets. These medications take up most of their monthly budget of K12 million ($2500) that can be used for purchase of drugs and medical supplies (ie. IV lines, umbilical cord clamps, antiseptics). With the donated Quinine and Fansidar and other medicine, the clinic can save about K6 million ($1275) of their budget to use for other emergency medications, supplies and transport to pick up the donated medications at the airport in Lusaka when they come in.

Rodney said the measles outbreak is now sporadic and the Hospital Clinic sees three to four children per week generally admitted for antibiotics and dehydration. They are now seeing an increase in malnutrition cases in children and the children’s ward is currently overflowing, This is common during April – May when the rainy season is over, but staple crops like maize are not yet ready to harvest.

The Spanish Medicine Sans Frontiers (MSF) arrived last week in Samfya. They will be working in Northern and Luapula Provinces doing education in the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT). They are also working with partners in the Ministry of Health to set up a mass measles immunization campaign for children up to fifteen years old. In Samfya District, a doctor and logistician will work with children under five years old who contract measles and become prone to malnutrition. MSF is using F-100 food supplement is given free to children to combat malnutrition. This formula supplies 100 kcal and 2.9 g protein per 100 ml of formula. More information can be found in the World Health Organization (WHO) Training Course on Management of Severe Malnutrition http://www.who.int/nut/publications4.feeding

Carmen Brubacher said, “As a heath care worker in a poverty stricken country, the worst thing is looking directly at a sick person in the eye and telling them there is nothing you can do for them. This is not because you do not know what to do, but because you do not have the medicine available to help them. With donations to the Samfya clinics, through Giving Children Hope and Bright Hope, we do not have to turn people away or tell them to go home and come again next month when they are in a more serious, life-threatening condition.”

2011.05.18 by Holly Johns

Shipment Received!

We received word today that the shipment of medical supplies sent mid-March was received by Bright Hope! They have stocked the shelves of their clinic and are ready to start distributing. Thank you to everyone who played a part in sending this container!

2011.04.01 by Holly Johns

Sending Additional Medicines

To continue providing health and medical relief to areas of Zambia, Giving Children Hope will be sending another pharmaceutical package to Bright Hope in Zambia. This clinic is helping the community receive medical attention, vaccinations and healthcare when otherwise not available. These medicines are set to ship in early March. Please stay updated as more information is available.

1969.12.31 by Holly Johns

Zambia Clinic Reports Medicines Received

Last month a shipment of medicines was sent to partners in Zambia to help supply their clinic in the Samfya region. In partnership with Bright Hope International, this clinic was able to treat the immediate needs of the community. Please see their report below:

“‘Third Shipment of Supplemental Medications: Hope Comes at a Desperate Time’

On August 8th, 2010, the third shipment of supplemental medications arrived in Samfya through the donation of Giving Children Hope and Bright Hope International. The Clinic in Samfya sees patients from within Samfya (population around 30,000) as well as those living in more rural areas because it is bigger, more equipped, and better staffed than rural clinics. The pharmacy in Samfya also sends medications to these rural clinics as they have need. The drugs from Giving Children Hope and Bright Hope International arrived in opportune time as the Samfya Stage II Clinic has recently seen two major health problems in the Samfya district: continued high incidence of malaria and a measles outbreak. For both medical problems, the clinic did not have the medications necessary to adequately treat the illnesses.

Malaria in Samfya District threatens the health of the community throughout the entire year. While it is usually highest during the rainy season (November-March), the clinic reports that it has not yet seen a decrease in malaria patients. However, the clinic has not been equipped with the right medication to help treat malaria for months. Quinine, which is used to treat complicated malaria (most commonly seen in Samfya) has been virtually out of stock in the Samfya Stage II Clinic since May 11th, 2010. After that date, the clinic has received very small allotments of quinine through rural center kits. However, the amount was insufficient to keep up with the great need for this medication. Additionally, most of the rural center kits go to smaller clinics and are unable to be used by the Samfya Clinic. The district pharmacist Rodney Kalaba was very grateful for this medication and pleased the clinic was now stocked to help fight against malaria in Samfya.

The second major health problem recently seen in Samfya was a measles outbreak. Starting in June 2010, a large number of patients came to the clinic and were diagnosed with measles. This illness is usually prevented through a childhood vaccine but the patients seen either did not receive the vaccine or the vaccine failed to protect them. The clinic needed to make major structural adjustments to accommodate the overflow of measles patients. They opened a conference room in the clinic hostel to be a measles ward. (The hostel usually provides intern housing). Additionally, the dispensary had to move to a different building because of the patient congestion and fear of spreading the contagious disease.

In addition to the lack of space, the clinic was also lacking medication to help treat measles. As measles causes many patients to be prone to chest infections and pneumonia, the clinic needed antibiotics such as amoxicillin. These arrived in the medical shipment. Additionally, many patients had skin rash and eye conjunctivitis which the clinic was unable to treat. But, the shipment provided needed topical creams and ointments such as tetracycline which will greatly help these symptoms.

Samfya Stage II Clinic is very thankful for the medications provided through Giving Children Hope and Bright Hope International. These medications have come at the right time to help fight against malaria, measles, and many other illnesses threatening the health of the Samfya community.”

2010.09.27 by Holly Johns

Medicines Leave for Zambia

Giving Children Hope has sent out another medicine package to treat patients in Zambia. According to the Bright Hope International web site, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has left more than 15% of the population in Zambia infected with AIDS and more than one million orphans. These medicines go to support their Home Based Care Program that supports AIDS orphans.

2010.06.23 by Harmony Trevino

Medicines Save Lives in Zambia

Below is a report from our partners, Bright Hope International, regarding a shipment of medicines Giving Children Hope shipped to them in March:

“A shipment of basic drugs was received at the District Pharmacy in Samfya on April 26 after the District Health Management Team cleared them through customs in Lusaka and transported them 700 km to Samfya. This the second consignment of drugs to reach Samfya through the kind donation of Giving Children Hope and Bright Hope working with their local partner Samfya Community of Care Providers. This shipment supplements the monthly consignment of drugs that are received monthly from the Government’s Central Medical Stores in Lusaka for the 32 government clinics in Samfya District. Health care and prescribed drugs are free in Zambia, but there never seems to be enough medicine available in Samfya. The private pharmacies do not store drugs appropriately and many people cannot afford to buy them anyway.

We visited Rodney Kalaba, the District Pharmacist, to see what impact the donated drugs are having. He said the drugs have been a great benefit to the community and ease some of the tension as clinicians often prescribe drugs that are out of stock. The clinicians are grateful for the topical creams that they don’t normally have access to and antibiotics that normally run out very quickly. They have a broader spectrum of drugs to utilize for treating specific ailments when the donated drugs are available. The children’s suspensions and dissolvable tablets make it so much easier to administer drugs to children who have had to take portions of adult doses in the past and many mothers give up administering the medicine because it is too difficult to get their children to take it because it tastes bad or is difficult to swallow. Rodney said there are very few medicines locally available that are easy for children to take.

There was an unusually high incidence of malaria in Luapula and Eastern Province during April and May. Many cases that were difficult to treat and many patients hospitalized as a result. The donated quinine saved many lives during this period.”

2010.06.04 by Harmony Trevino

Pharmaceuticals Shipped to Zambia

GCHope shipped a package of pharmaceuticals to Zambia on March 27, 2010.

2010.06.04 by GCHope

Updates from Samfya

Here is an update from our partners in the field that have received the pharmaceuticals:

Samfya District Health Management Team Update for Essential Drug Needs and Uses through on-going partnership between Giving Children Hope, Willow Creek Community Church and Bright Hope International

A visit to the Samfya Stage II Clinic found the District pharmacists busy dividing up the 25 clinic packs they receive from the government monthly to send out to 32 rural clinics. The pallet of donated essential drugs received in March 2009 are “long gone, yet much appreciated” according to Mr Zulu, acting Director of Health for Samfya District. The 32 rural clinics which were given the drugs to use for their patients used most of them within 2 months. The donated drugs filled the gap left by the government shipment that the clinics normally receive monthly, but often only last for only two weeks at the rural health clinics.

July 2009 promoted “Child Health Week” for children under 5 years old. The health department vehicle sent a reminder message to all mobile phones through the mobile phone network that parents and guardians to should bring their children for vitamins and de-worming tablets. The District health department vehicle traveled around to designated sites to examine, weigh and provide the medicines and supplements to all children under 5 years of age. The donated de-worming drugs were especially appreciated because they were fruit-flavored and the children were left with a “good taste in their mouth”.

At the clinic, patients receive drugs from the clinic pharmacist through a small barred window designated for this purpose. The pharmacist provides instructions on how and when to take the drugs. Patients are examined and drugs are provided free of charge at government health facilities, however, when they run out of medicine at the clinic, the patients are not always able to find them elsewhere and if they do, they cannot always afford to purchase them.

When someone is sick and admitted to the clinic in-patient ward, a family member has to come and take care of the basic needs and feeding of the patient. Even bed linens are brought from home. There are not enough nurses to manage the needs of all the patients and the clinics do not have the resources to provide food. A patient too weak to sit up is nursed by his wife. Their baby plays on the hospital floor. Seeing their family picture on the camera screen brings a bit of cheer to the otherwise dire situation. Clearly, the rural clinics do not have the financial resources to provide anything more than basic services. Donated drugs take some of the pressure off the clinics when they have to decide what services they will be able to afford on a monthly basis. The generosity of those who have made the donation possible is not taken for granted by Samfya community and health workers.

2010.01.20 by GCHope

Pharmaceuticals Arrive Safely in Samfya

Here is an update from our partners in the field that have received the pharmaceuticals:

Essential Drug Assistance to Samfya District Health Management Board through kind donation of Bright Hope International, Willow Creek Community Church and Giving Children Hope

In March 2009. a shipment of essential drugs arrived at the Samfya Health District in Zambia. The 32 rural health centers, District Stage II Clinic and two mission hospitals which serve a population of more than 200,000 receive monthly drug disbursements from the Samfya District Pharmacy, but the pharmacy is rarely able to meet the drug needs of patients in the District. The drugs donated to the District are a much appreciated supplement to the standard package of drugs provided by the Ministry of Health. Normally, when the District runs out of drugs, which are given free of charge, patients have to purchase the drugs from a private pharmacy, if they can find them, and there is no guarantee of their viability.

The Director of Health, Mr Zulu, expressed his sincere thanks not only to the donors who provided the drugs, but also to those who facilitated the logistics of getting them all the way to Lusaka. Sometimes, the equipment and supplies available for developing countries are not practical for donation due to the cost of getting them from Europe or North America to Zambia.

The Director of Health and District Pharmacists commented on the usefulness of all the drugs in the shipment. Due to high demand, some will not last more than one or two months, but they expect that for most of the drugs received, they will provide an adequate supply for patients in Samfya for most of this year.

Fansidar is a drug given to pregnant women as preventative treatment for malaria throughout their pregnancy, but the District doesn’t receive it with their regular drug consignment and have to buy it when they have funds available. The 5000 tablets received will assist 1600 women in the District to have a pregnancy without complications due to malaria.

Child Health Week is coming up in June. Children under 5 years of age are usually given mebendazole for routine deworming. This time, the District will be able to offer flavored tablets to these children from the shipment received.

Thank you for partnering with Bright Hope, Samfya Community of Care Providers and the other stakeholders working to improve health care in Samfya.

2009.03.18 by Harmony Trevino

Medicines Shipped

Pharmaceuticals have been shipped to the clinic in Zambia, which will help serve thousands.

2009.02.14 by Harmony Trevino