Aid post in need of meds

By EHEYUC SESERU
THE Wediru village aid post in Bukawa, Labuta local level government in Nawaeb, Morobe, has run out of basic drugs since last September.
Community health worker-in-charge Daisy Peter said there was no medicine to treat patients with malaria and tuberculosis (TB) and they were waiting for stocks to be available at the nearest Boac health centre.
She said the aid-post had been without medicines since September. “We are without basic antibiotics and painkillers, especially amoxicillin, paracetamol, septrin, and aspirin,” she said.
“We got a few supplies in the first week of March and it lasted only three to four days.
“There’s a lot of patients so we ran out of stock quickly.
“When we have that supply, there’s more than 40 patients in a day.”
Peter said she normally ordered 30 to 40 containers of each drug containing 100 tablets.
“The most common disease was malaria with 15-20 patients in a day, and more than 200 patients a month,” she said.
“There are no supplies so patients were informed not to come.
“Some bought their own medicines from pharmacies and I treated them here.”
Peter said the aid post was supposed to be supplied monthly which they got from the health centre who in turn was supplied by the area medical store.
She said the aid post’s catchment area covered ward five while patients also came from ward four and six.
Peter said aid posts in the catchment of Boac were Buingim, Wediru, Yambo and main Bukawa village.
“Bukawa and Yambo aid posts were closed while the other two are struggling to attend to patients with drug shortage.”
Aid post board chairman and ward five councillor Kigah Diling said they had a population of more than 1,800 people, and the most common diseases in community were TB and malaria.