The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, has called on government to come up with a campaign against the sale of fake drugs on Uganda’s market.
Kadaga said the campaign should additionally be able to address self-medication by the public.
“I think we need a very big campaign to inform our people to go to the right places. In the market places, you find drugs displayed in the sun, people busy buying them; you don’t know whether they are expired, you don’t know whether they have been contaminated,” she said.
Kadaga was speaking at the celebration of Joint Medical Stores’ 40 years of service, in Jinja, on Thursday, 21 February 2019.
The Vicar General, Rev. Fr. Paul Musana, who represented the Archbishop of Kampala Archdiocese, noted that the sale of fake drugs puts pressure on suppliers of quality medicines.
“The biggest challenges we have are fake drugs and fake doctors; it is like a way of life which everyone has taken on because people like cheap things,” said Musana adding that “we call upon your support such that Parliament helps us ensure quality.”
Kadaga was happy to note that JMS was manufacturing a supplement called ‘Replenish’ from the local herb, Moringa, for treating children with the nodding disease syndrome and other chronic illness.
“You are doing import substitution because we do not have to import these drugs, and you are creating employment for those working in the industry, the Moringa growers and those who are going to market the products,” she said.
Kadaga was equally pleased that an earlier government programme encouraging Ugandans to grow Moringa will finally realize the desired results.
Upon a request from JMS, Kadaga pledged to work through the Parliamentary Budget Committee and advocate for increased funding for mission health facilities, saying that the funding has stagnated at Shs16 billion.
