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WHO urges Zambia to allocate adequate resurces to health

WHO urges Zambia to allocate adequate resurces to health
By Agness Changala
Wed 27 Oct. 2010, 04:01 CAT

WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) African regional director Dr Luis Sambo has said Zambia’s dependency on external resources to the health sector is not sustainable.

In an interview over Zambia’s health sector, Dr Sambo has urged the government to allocate adequate resources to the health sector and acknowledged that while there were still a lot of challenges in the country’s health sector some progress had been made. He, however, noted that some slow improvements being made.

“This is what I should share with the government and all Zambians that a lot still needs to be done but we recognise the progress made so far,” Dr Sambo said.

He also urged cooperating partners to resume funding to the health sector.
Dr Sambo said withholding funds had impacted negatively on the health programmes in Zambia.

Donors to the health sector withheld funding after revelations of rampant abuse and theft of resources at the Ministry of Health.

And later during the launch of 2010 National Protocol Guidelines in Chongwe on Monday, Dr Sambo said although Zambia had made great strides towards the attainment of some Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a lot still needed to be done in the next five years.

He said the key to attaining MDG four, which focuses on reducing infant mortality, was by reaching every newly-born baby and children with a set of priority interventions.

“These include appropriate breastfeeding practices, prevention of vaccine preventable diseases through immunisation and prevention and management of common childhood illness such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and malnutrition and HIV infection,” he said.

Dr Sambo said the vast majority of maternal deaths could be averted if every woman had access to proven and cost effective interventions that existed to reduce maternal mortality.

He said the launch of the guidelines marked a great milestone in the joint efforts at achieving the MDGs 4, 5 and 6 which aimed to reduce child and maternal mortalities and reverse the incidence of HIV and AIDS.

Dr Sambo said WHO would continue to work with the government and all partners including the research and academic communities to promote the implementation of evidence based interventions not only to improve maternal health but eliminate paediatric HIV transmission in Zambia, Africa and the world at large.

Labels: HEALTHCARE, LUIS SAMBO, MDGs, WHO

posted by MrK @ 2:12 PM