The government of Malawi has received a donation of pharmaceuticals from the global health organization Americare, based in the U.S. Shortly after Malawi president Joyce Banda opened the gate to drug partnerships, help has began to trickle in, supplementing the 50 percent medication gap that has harshly affected both public and private hospitals, Nyasa Times reported.

According to Enock Foster, a Central Medical Stores pharmacists, the donation will fulfill the country’s medication needs for a duration of three months.

“Let me say openly here that the government of President Dr. Joyce Banda will always put the welfare of all Malawians at heart such that people will not die in hospitals because of lack of drugs,” Vice President Khumbo Kachali said in the report.

“These drugs have come as a result of the President’s appeal to development partners to assist Malawi with drugs,” he said.

The Nayasa Times also reported that in addition to Americare’s donation — including two shipments that are to follow, — The Republic of Arab Emirates will also send a medication shipment.

Illnesses like diarrhea, which are prevalent during the rainy season, will be treated with the drugs packed in Americare’s donation, Foster said.  Sodium Chloride, gelatin packs, intravenous infusion and serological pipette tools were sent to assist Malawi patients, the report said.

Through the Central Medical Stores Trust, government hospitals are encouraged to purchase these drugs, however, the process hasn’t run without concerns.

“Let me emphasize on the need of proper communication between us and the hospital authorities because most of the times we hear complaints that the trust is not helping which is not true,” Kachali continued. “What we want as a trust is a request from the hospital managers of the required drugs and we will be able to supply them.”

In February, IRIN News reported that of the 585 health facilities in the country, only nine percent (54) were equipped to treat the 11 common diseases including pneumonia and malaria.