Health facilities in Swaziland have reportedly run
out of vaccines against polio and tuberculosis in the latest in a long-running
shortage of medicines in the kingdom, due to non-payment of bills by the
government.
New-born babies have been put at risk, according to
a media report.
The Observer
on Saturday reported (30 October 2017) the crisis surfaced in September
2017 when some health facilities ran out of the drugs. The newspaper said now
Swaziland’s busiest hospital the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial in Manzini had been
without the vaccines for the whole of December.
The shortage of medicines is rife in Swaziland
where King Mswati III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. The
Swazi Government that is not elected but hand-picked by the King has failed to
pay bills of drug suppliers.
The Government continues to maintain there is no
shortage, but reports on the ground suggest otherwise.
In June 2017, Senator Prince Kekela told
parliament that at least five people had
died as a result of the drug shortages. About US$18 million was reportedly owed to drug
companies in May 2017.
As ordinary people died the Prime Minister Barnabas
Dlamini revealed that King Mswati and his mother paid for him to travel to
Taiwan for his own medical treatment.
Dlamini was not elected PM by the people of Swaziland. He was personally
appointed by the King, as were all other government ministers and top judges in
the kingdom. None of Swaziland’s senators are elected by the people.
Dlamini celebrated his 75th birthday in
2017. The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect
owned by King Mswati, reported (5 June 2017), ‘The Prime Minister said he was
grateful that when Their Majesties were informed about his ailment in April,
they responded hastily and ordered that he be taken to the best doctors in
Taiwan, Taipei.
‘“Their Majesties gave orders that I go to the best
and well experienced doctors in Taiwan. I am now looking forward to turning 76
years and I thank God for keeping me safe,” he said.’
The nature of his illness has not been publicly
revealed.
King Mswati lives a lavish lifestyle with at least
13 palaces, a private jet aircraft with another due to arrive in 2018, and
fleets of top-of-the-range BMW and Mercedes cars. Meanwhile seven in ten of his
1.2 million subjects live in abject poverty with incomes of less than US$2 per
day.
See also
MEDICINE SHORTAGE: FIVE DIE
DRUG SHORTAGE CRISIS DEEPENS
SWAZI
GOVT ‘KILLING ITS OWN PEOPLE’
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2017/05/swazi-govt-killing-its-own-people.html
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