From Deworming Day to the Emergency Ward: Inside the Ntungamo School Drug Mix-Up

By The Urban Gazette Investigations Desk
Ntungamo, Uganda
When pupils at Kyamate Primary School in Ntungamo lined up for a routine deworming exercise earlier this month, teachers and parents expected the day to be quick and uneventful. School health drives are common across Uganda, part of a national strategy to prevent worm infections among school-aged children. But within hours, parents were rushing into classrooms to find their children drowsy, unresponsive, or unable to stand.

The pupils had not been given albendazole — the standard deworming drug.
They had been given a sedative.

District health officials confirmed that a medication labeling and supply chain error caused the wrong drug to be administered. More than two dozen children were hospitalized for treatment and monitoring. Though no fatalities were reported, the incident has shaken confidence in school-based health programs and raised serious questions about oversight, accountability, and medical safety protocols.

How the Mix-Up Happened

According to the Ntungamo District Health Office, the medication batch delivered for the school deworming day arrived pre-packaged and stored along with other essential health supplies. It appears that the sedative and the deworming drug were stored together during transportation and distribution at the district level.

However, what remains unclear is where the swap occurred:

Was it at national medical stores?

During district-level repackaging?

Or at the school distribution point?

Multiple health workers who spoke on condition of anonymity say no pharmacist or trained drug custodian was present during distribution — a violation of standard public health protocol.

“We trust the labels. We trusted the box. We were told these were the drugs for deworming,” said one teacher who helped organize the exercise. “We did not expect that the wrong medicine could be sealed in such packaging.”

Parents Want Transparency, Not Apologies

For parents, apologies are not enough.

“Imagine receiving a phone call saying your child can’t stand,” said a mother of a Primary Five pupil who was admitted for nine hours.
“I want to know how a drug for calming patients was given to children. Someone must answer.”

Parents have since demanded:

A public audit of the drug supply chain

Permanent presence of qualified pharmacists during school health exercises

Consent forms issued in advance, not after the fact

This isn’t the first time communication has broken down between school health teams and families — but it may be the most serious recent case.

Where Accountability Breaks

Every step of the school medication process has designated responsibility:

Stage Responsible Actor

Drug procurement National Medical Stores
Distribution to districts District Health Office
School-level administration Health Assistant + Headteacher
Safety verification District Pharmacist

But system experts note a critical weakness:

When staff shortages occur, verification steps get skipped.

Uganda currently faces:

Shortage of trained pharmacists

Overworked district health teams

Limited cold-chain and medicine storage infrastructure

Minimal oversight once drugs reach schools

“This is not a one-off problem,” says Dr. R., a retired Ministry pharmacist.
“If a drug can be swapped or mislabeled at any point without immediate detection, the system has a structural safety gap.”

The Fear: Erosion of Public Trust

School health programs — deworming, vitamin supplementation, vaccinations — rely on trust.
Distrust can quickly translate to:

Parent refusals

Children staying home on health days

Spread of conspiracy rumors online

Drop in national treatment coverage rates

Uganda has worked for years to boost public trust in school health campaigns. Incidents like Ntungamo threaten to undo that progress.

What Happens Next

The Ministry of Health has launched a formal investigation. District officials say those responsible will be held accountable.

Potential outcomes include:

Suspension or reassignment of health officers

Procurement audit of the medication source

New verification protocols requiring double-signature drug checks

Mandatory parent notification and consent for all school medical events

But parents and civil society actors are watching closely.

They want:

Accountability

Transparency

Public reporting of investigation findings

Because what happened in Ntungamo is not simply a mistake — it is a breach of trust between parents, schools, and the health system.

And rebuilding trust will take more than words.