The Tanzania Food and Drug authority (TFDA) has made tremendous improvements in recent years in ensuring medicines in the healthcare system are of good quality, safe and produce the planned health benefit.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Tanzania is the first well beleifed country in Africa to achieve a well-functioning, regulatory system for medical products.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa said, “This is a major African milestone and we are very proud of Tanzania’s achievement, which we hope will inspire other countries in the region. With this step Tanzania makes a big step towards improving the quality of its health care services.”

It is important to have a successful regulatory systems that also serve to promote timely access to quality medicines as Medicines are used to prevent illnesses and treat diseases, helping many people to lead full and productive lives. However, if produced, stored or transported improperly or used incorrectly then medicines can be dangerous and can lead to hospitalization and even death.
WHO and African governments have raised efforts to support the capacity of regulating medicines in the region.
Over the past years WHO has been supporting African countries, including Tanzania to boost their regulatory organizations.

The benchmarking of Tanzanian regulatory authorities was carried out in levels by a WHO-led team of international experts.
Tanzania FDA met all indicators that define a maturity level 3 agency, the second highest on WHO’s scale and the target for regulatory systems worldwide

Tanzania FDA has come a long way to becoming a well known leader in medicines regulation in Africa
The latest achievement means that medical doctors, pharmacists, chemists and technicians working for the regulatory authority hold the expertise and hands-on skills to evaluate medical products, prevent and check associated hazards and are able of protecting the public from substandard and falsified medicines.

It has been decided to conduct the vaccination against the Ebola disease for health workers.
This has been announced by the Government through the Ministry of Health, that the vaccination will target front line workers in the fight against Ebola.

As the widespread occurance continues to claim more lives in neighbouring DRC.
As neighbour to the DRC, Uganda is on high risk alert due to the high risk of the Ebola threat.

In August 2018, Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak was confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
It is currently affecting north-eastern province of DRC that border Uganda, Rwanda and south Sudan.

As of 1st November 2018, the DRC had registered a total of 285 increasing cases, 250 confirmed cases and total of 180 deaths.
Currently about 41 suspect cases are under investigation.

The two provinces that are affected are North Kivu – Mabalako; Butembo; Ocha; Musienene; Beni and Bingo and Ituri- Mambasa, Mandina, Tchomia.

The affected areas in the DRC are about 100km from the Uganda’s border districts of Kabaraole, Bunyangabo, Kasese, Bundibugyo, Hoima, Arua and Ntoroko.

The Search for active case continues in all communities, health facilities and in formal and informal border crossing in all districts, mostly in the high risk ones.

In order to prevent the spread of this disease, the trainings on case management have been conducted in 7 districts of Kabaraole, Bunyangabo, Kasese, Bundibugyo, ntoroko, wakiso and Kampala.

Meanwhile, the Ministry has again repeated that there is no confirmed case of Ebola registered in Uganda yet.
But this vaccination programme will help the front line workers to get the better services and treatment against the ebola disease.

The Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, pointed to the fact that JKCI had made significant contribution by reducing referrals of heart patients by 85 per cent.

TANZANIA is gearing to become a hub of high-tech cardiovascular treatment in East Africa and Sub- Saharan Africa through extension of the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI) at Mloganzila, which is envisioned to be a centre of excellence in the region.

Cardiovascular complications are among non-communicable diseases that are on the rise in Tanzania and elsewhere in the region and hence the need to expand JKCI to enable it to cater for treatment of heart diseases.

Prof Janabi stated that “All the drawings and proposal of the new hospital have been completed and submitted to the government of China and We are highly positive that they (Chinese) will support us in this project just as they did for the current facility”.
Prof Janabi made the revelation at the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of China-Tanzania Cooperation in the health sector, which was held at the Embassy of China in Dar es Salaam where the Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Dr Augustine Mahiga, was the chief guest.

Dr Mahiga informed the audience that Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa had requested the President of China, Mr Xi Jinping, to support the expansion of JKCI during the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in September, this year.

“Apart from the extension of the cardiac institute, we also requested our Chinese friends to enable us to improve our capability in manufacturing of medicines, medical equipment and training of personnel,” Dr Mahiga, who accompanied the PM at FOCAC, stated.

The planned new facility at Mloganzila, which will include a special wing for children, will have a capacity of between 280 and 350 beds, up from the current 128 beds at the current JKCI building, which is located within the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH).
Apart from treating local patients, the current facility at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) extends services to patients from neighbouring countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda as well as Zambia, Malawi and the Comoros, among others.

Speaking earlier, the Ambassador of China to Tanzania, Ms Wang Ke, disclosed that over 2,000 medical practitioners have been dispatched from China, particularly in Shandong Province, to hospitals in Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar.

During the commemoration, officials from the two countries also launched a programme called “Chinese Doctors’ Medical Visits Benefiting Tanzania,” in which medical teams will be dispatched twice every year to provide free medical services in rural areas.

The Envoy pledged support from her government to ensure that extension of JKCI is implemented. The Chinese government provided 16.6bn/- for JKCI, while the government of Tanzania provided funds amounting to 10bn/-.

Dr Mahiga expressed appreciation to China for continued support.

Tanzanian businesswoman Lilian Makoi has introduced an affordable mobile healthcare solution christened Jamii Africa in Tanzania. Although she has co-founded a number of startups, Jamii Africa happens to be her biggest and most positive business venture.

According to Lilian Makoi, she started Jamii Africa after losing someone in her family from a treatable medical emergency. The main reason for the loss, she said was their inability to pay for medical services. And this according to her was a wake-up call.

She was therefore ignited to do a research concerning the incident, after which she found out that, in-access and in-affordability to medical services was a problem facing 70 percent of the Tanzania population.

Per the research, she decided to speak with various insurers to understand why they were not addressing such an issue. But unfortunately majority attributed their inability to “high insurance administration costs.”

“Through the experience I had gained in my career it was easy to craft out how the mobile phone can be used to do most, if not all, of the administrative activities of the insurer, from on-boarding, premium collection, benefit ledger management, claims processing and payout,” she said.
She then built the platform and reached out to Vodacom as a product partner. With Jamii, users easily call Vodacom’s M-Pesa USSD menu and select a policy fit for their family size and what they can afford.

The policy ranges from $1 a month to $70 a year which also varys from 3 months/6 months to 12 options for individuals or families. After selecting the desired policy, individuals pay the premium via M-Pesa and then Jamii’s platform manages their benefit ledger, claim processing and payout to hospitals.

The platform cuts out the need for paperwork and manpower that makes insurance expensive. However, for each selected policy option, the user can spend 500 times the premium paid to access medical services.

The policyholder is then allowed to get medical services within the benefit cap, upon which they pay the hospital’s approved claims via M-Pesa. This platform provides affordable policies with flexible payment options that match the nature of the low-income families.

Speaking about the tech sector in Tanzania, she indicated that, it is developing with new players coming in and the youth actively playing a major role in the tech space as founders and CEOs.
According to her, there are tons of opportunities in terms of solving basic to business problems in the country using technology. She also commended the youth for being very active and risk-averse in technology.

She indicated that more could be done, in developing the ecosystem by providing the requisite support to make the journey shorter and easier for the founders and CEOs.
Although Lilian faced some challenges with team building and capital, now, she hopes to do more marketing campaigns directed towards customers and SME ; in a country where out of 50 million people, only five percent have health insurance

Balsam International, a heart surgery and cardiology team is preparing to go to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in the next few days to treat 176 heart patients after successful trips to treat 225 heart patients in Yemen.

Dr. Imad Bukhari, cardiac surgery consultant and CEO of Balsam, said that during the six-day trip the team aims to conduct 16-18 open heart surgeries, about 60 catheterizations, offering treatment to 100 cases in outpatient clinics in collaboration with the medical team at the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute.

The trip comes after coordination with the Ambassador of Tanzania in Saudi Arabia Hamid Eid Maghazi, the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute. Heart surgeon Dr. Rakan Nazer expressed his delight in participating with his colleagues in Balsam in this humanitarian charity work. Dr. Rahim Gul, a Pakistani consultant in cardiac surgery, is taking part in this trip too.

Dr. Abdulaziz Khouja, anesthesiologist, and his colleagues remember joyfully the achievements of “Balsam1” and “Balsam2” trips to Yemen in April and May 2018. In about 12 days, 25 open heart surgeries and more than 200 catheterizations were carried out, in addition to more than 750 clinical and ultrasound checkups.

The nucleuses of this medical team are Saudi citizens who are proud of the international medical status that Saudi doctors have reached in fields such as heart surgery.

Healthcare is a word that defines the fitness of all, so are the safety measures taken to prevent disease spread and secure our well being. Manufactures providing us with the gadgets that ensure security have been held in high esteem, one big example is Kenya’s very own La Miguela Holdings. Widely known for their Needle Smelter, the company will showcase this marvel at the 21st Medexpo Africa 2018, to be held from the 04-06 September at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, Nairobi.

Celebrating its 21st edition Medexpo, has been the market for over two decades, promoting the healthcare industry to the African market. The event features products, machinery, equipments, tools and technology used in the medical sectors, this would include, of tablets, syrups, syringes, scanners, surgery tools, lasers, OT equipments, scrubs, gloves, chemicals, solutions, cosmetic tools, sterilizers, centrifuges, microscopes etc. Exhibitors from over 25 countries participate, counting the continents apart from Africa. Overall entire floor is a fold of vast imaginations, a culmination of the brightest minds and ideas dedicated to healthcare sector.

La Minguela, a known name in the region is famous for its safety products and solution. They step in when you have no way out, especially in life threatening situations. They will bring their needle smelters to the expo; a devise that completes dissolves syringes under extreme heat with no risk of any transfer of disease, infection or any other ailing. The product will be a great addition to the list of displays at the expo. Moreover the fair will allow they the need exposure to other markets, international waters and promising traders.

The show is expected to attract over 5000 visitors, both local and international such as buyers, sellers, distributors, scientist, medical professionals, healthcare centre’s, facilities and institutions, developers, researchers, delegates, associations, suppliers to name a few. Moreover the participants will be quiet intriguing with all their innovation presented to a crowd, waiting for the next development in the healthcare future.

Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, has said that Rwanda has witnessed its all time low in maternal and child mortality rates. Community-based health insurance, good external partnerships and community health workers are responsible for decline in the numbers.

Rwanda has been increasing its network exponentially in terms of community health workers and volunteers in villages. This is evidently helping with the rural development as medical facilities are not reaching rural part of Rwanda more efficiently.

Kagame claims, close to 90% of Rwandans are currently enrolled in health insurance. Rwandan government subsidizes only one-third of the cost with contributions from beneficiaries taking care of the remaining two-thirds.

On the role technology played in the process, he said, “Integrating digital applications and new technologies into our health system has also made a difference, and we are now using drone aircraft to quickly deliver blood and medical supplies to rural hospitals.”

President emphasized on universal health coverage, says, it is possible for countries and all income levels. It is rather an opportunity and WHO (world health organization) is supporting this as well.

He added that, while advocating more funding to be channeled towards achieving UHC by 2030, he urged increased training and employment in the health workforce.