Standard Treatment Guidelines (STG 2021) and National Essential Medicines List (NEMLIT) 2021 | Download

The Government is committed to ensure adequate availability and accessibility of safe, efficacious and affordable essential medicines at all times to all Tanzanians. To realize this objective, the development and implementation of Standard Treatment Guidelines (STG) and National Essential Medicines List (NEMLIT) is an important step in the health care system for quality diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases as well as procurement and supply of essential medicines.

Download This STG 2021
Standard Treatment Guidelines (STG) and National Essential Medicines List (NEMLIT)

The 2017 edition of STG/NEMLIT has been updated to reflect new therapeutic options and changing therapeutic needs, the need to ensure drug quality, safety issues, medicines for emerging diseases, medicines to meet changing resistance pattern and to reconsider levels of care. A new chapter “approach to patients with emergency conditions” has been added to guide clinicians in the management of patients with emergency conditions and provide initial resuscitation and stabilization. In addition, under notifiable diseases, guidance for the management of COVID-19 has been addressed.

The list of medicines has been selected with due regard to disease prevalence and public health relevance, evidence of clinical efficacy and safety, comparative costs, availability and treatment facilities. The review considered the ongoing expansion of services in primary health facilities; hence, levels of some medicines have been lowered to be available at that level. In particular, special attention has been paid to medicines used to manage non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Also, this new version of STG/NEMLIT adopted the World Health Organization classification of antibiotics into Access, Watch, Reserve (Aware) groups, aiming to improve the rational use of antimicrobial agents and minimize the burden of antimicrobial resistance.

Download This STG 2021
Standard Treatment Guidelines (STG) and National Essential Medicines List (NEMLIT)

The Standard Treatment Guidelines comprise statements to assist practitioners in making decisions about appropriate treatment for specific clinical conditions. Hence, this is a key tool, which should be used to effectively promote access to essential medicines, to achieve maximum therapeutic benefit and optimize patient outcomes. Further, the document will guide the procurement and supply of medicines at the Medical Stores Department (MSD)prescribing and dispensing of medicines in public health facilities as well as the reimbursements of medicines at the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).

I therefore urge all responsible institutions and experts to adhere to STG/NEMLIT and to ensure availability of essential medicines at all times, in adequate amounts, in appropriate dosage forms, with assured quality and adequate information, and at a price the individual and the community can afford. Comments and suggestions that may help us to improve a next edition of STG/NEMLIT are welcome and much appreciated. I am confident that health care workers and responsible institutions will find this document very useful.