Disappearance of drugs undermines Uganda’s fight against malaria

Efforts to control malaria in Uganda have been undermined by a lack of first line treatments in public health centres, say investigators from a newly established health monitoring unit that has made dozens of arrests in a crackdown on illicit sales of government owned drugs.

Three senior health officials are currently on trial for corruption: Richard Ndyomugenyi, a senior medical officer, Myers Lugemwa, a doctor, and Martin Shibeki, programmes assistant.

Detective Ian Kakuru told a court in Kampala that the case involved the alleged mishandling of more than 625 000 doses of antimalarial drugs worth 1.1 billion Ugandan shillings (£0.35m; €0.41m; $0.51m)

Uganda has been rocked by a number of drug supply scandals in recent years. A former health minister, Jim Muhwezi, and two junior ministers, Mike Mukula and Alex Kamugisha, were arrested in May 2007 after …