Your remaining containers have only mosquito nets - Health Ministry to Global Fund

The Health Ministry has dismissed allegations that Global Fund containers at Tema Port contain essential drugs for Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS.

This comes amid a potential health crisis, as the Global Fund threatens to halt funding to Ghana by the end of June 2024 if the government fails to clear around 120 containers at the port.

Ghana has already exhausted its TB medications, leading health facilities to ration them since May 2023. The government has only managed to clear about 60 of the containers since April.

These containers are part of a donation of 266 containers of essential drugs, valued at $40 million, from the Global Fund. The government is responsible for taxes, levies, and port charges, estimated at $3.6 million.

Speaking on Starr Today with Joshua Kodjo Mensah, the Public Relations Officer for the Health Ministry, Isaac Offei, clarified that the containers at the port contain mosquito nets, not essential drugs. "We hope to clear the containers by next week. We have only mosquito nets at the port and not HIV and TB drugs. HIV and TB drugs were cleared last April," he stated.

Offei added that the mosquito nets are crucial for preventing malaria, thus highlighting their importance.

However, Ernest Ortsin, Lead Convener of the Coalition of CSOs in HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, refuted the Ministry's claims, calling them false and insulting to Ghanaians.

Despite government assurances, the Coalition of CSOs plans to continue their protest on 25 June.

The ongoing situation has resulted in unnecessary loss of lives, with critical drugs wasting away while patients are in desperate need.