Zambia going backwards on health MDG, says Luo

Zambia going backwards on health MDG, says Luo
By Moses Kuwema
Tue 19 July 2011, 14:00 CAT

PROFESSOR Nkandu Luo says Zambia is going backwards regarding the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on health. In an interview yesterday, Prof Luo said her understanding of improvement in health was not about being able to provide drugs but reducing the disease burden in the country.

“There are particular things which should be visible. For example, the nutrition of people should be one of the important parameters that should be used in measuring the progress and if you travel round Zambia, you find that a lot of people are malnourished. Zambia is one of the countries with the highest levels of malnutrition and these days we even see a lot of adult malnutrition. So I don’t know what is improving in Zambia when now we even have adult malnutrition,” Prof Luo said.

Prof Luo said even the distances that people are required to cover to access health services were too long.

“At the moment Zambia is going through a crisis with regards to alcohol abuse, really I don't know what we are talking about. Gender equality, Zambia is very far from attaining gender equality. Zambia is very far from achieving the requirements for reproductive health because if you look at the parameters, we have some of the highest maternal and child deaths in the country. I personally do not agree that Zambia is doing well in terms of the MDGs on health,” said Prof Luo.