Country Highlights

To date, SCMS has bought and delivered more than $10.3M of antiretrovirals (ARVs) for Zambia, more than for any other country that SCMS supports. In July 2007 alone, SCMS delivered approximately $855K worth of ARVs, HIV test kits, and laboratory supplies to support HIV/AIDS programs in Zambia.

SCMS is working with the Ministry of Health and US government partners to strengthen the country’s laboratory logistics system. Laboratories need a reliable and cost-effective supply of equipment such as FACS Count (to measure a person’s CD4 levels) and medical supplies such as CD4 reagent kits. Having reliable data is essential for logistics planning to avoid procuring too much or too little of any given item.

SCMS is currently providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Health to design a new logistics management information system (LMIS) and inventory control system. As a short term measure, SCMS has assisted the Ministry of Health to develop a quick laboratory assessment tool to gather needed consumption and stock information. This tool will be used at the 52 selected laboratory facilities to collect historical data from January 1 to June 30, 2007, and three month’s real-time data from August 1 to October 31, 2007. The data will be used for the quantification of laboratory commodities to be undertaken in November 2007.

Value of commodities delivered as of December 2007: Over $27 million