Medicine Monitoring

Article

Coverage of a pilot ‘pill-check’ SMS scheme run by the African arm of Health Action International, in which volunteers visiting public clinics and hospitals in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Malawi text in reports of out-of-stock essential medicines. Reports are verified and mapped online, exposing shortages of antimalarials, antiretrovirals and other essential drugs and pressuring governments to respond; within a week the scheme had logged over 250 stockouts across more than 100 facilities, and campaigners hoped to extend the approach to South Africa.