'Health systems in Africa are not accessible

'Health systems in Africa are not accessible
By Maluba Jere
Monday August 04, 2008 [04:00]

HEALTH systems in most African countries are not well developed and accessible to the communities, Southern African Regional Networks on malaria chairperson Simon Kunene has said. In an interview in Lusaka, on the sidelines of a World Health Organisation workshop on malaria, Kunene said the problem of accessibility of health services, if not addressed, could hamper efforts aimed at fighting malaria.

"As a region, we are working towards improving issues such as accessibility and drug availability and if the systems are not improved to enhance accessibility our efforts could be in vain," he said.

However, Kunene commended the Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state for their political commitment and allocation of resources to the fight against malaria.

He said there had been some tremendous improvements in funding aimed at scaling up malaria interventions and reversing the disease burden.

"Malaria is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Africa and being a person whose been around for some time, I can say there's been great improvement in resource allocation to malaria programmes, " Kunene said. "Opportunities are now there like Global Fund has tremendously helped to scale up interventions and reverse the disease burden.

"SADC is one of the few regions with political commitment towards this fight and so we are trying to identify how best to deliver these interventions such as the ordering and delivering of mosquito nets to the remotest parts of the country."

Kunene implored the media to work with his organisation and others to help disseminate information to the public on malaria.