View of Malakal Teaching Hospital -Photo courtesy.

The medical director of Malakal Teaching Hospital has said the facility is faced with shortages of drugs , lack of testing kits for HIV and Hepatitis B amidst rising cases of the diseases in the town.

Dr. Khat Deng said there was a surge in the rates of infections in the communities, but the shortage of testing kits made it difficult to ascertain the rate of infections.

“Yes, for testing kits we are lacking them. So, we have seen the rates of cases of hepatitis B infection and HIV there are circulating in the community, but because of this issue, to assess this viral cases is so difficult,” said Medical Doctor Deng.

Deng Went on, saying “If we are now in a position to minimize these cases we supposed to provide this testing kits freely when we provide them we will aware the community and everyone should make screening and voluntary screening.”

Since the 2016 conflict, several NGOs and UN agencies have been conducting awareness activities about HIV and Hepatitis B diseases in the area.

Dr. Deng is now calling on the residents of Malakal to go for voluntary testing to know there status.

For his part, the acting director-general of Malakal Teaching Hospital, said the hospital is grappling with an acute shortage of drugs and basic equipment that includes x-rays and ultra-radiography.

“We have drugs problem, you see the last consignment of drugs came last July to the hospital from the partners, and the drugs from the national government came here since 2019 and up to now we did not receive any drugs from the national ministry of health,” said medical doctor Nyango John Adwok.

Dr. Adwok also said the facility is also understaffed presenting another blow to their work in providing health services to the populace.

“The nurses we have are only nine right now, so the workers are few. And we don’t x-ray, we don’t ultra-radiography in the hospital,” he said.