26 January 2004
Luanda — The levels of primary and secondary health care, in Angola, provided by the National Health Services have recently reduced to 60 per cent, due to the lack of qualified people and infrastructures.
This information was given this Monday, in Luanda, by the Health minister, Albertina Hamukwaia, when speaking at the last day of the Cycle of Medical Meetings, on the subject "The Health System in Angola".
Due to this insufficiency, said the minister, only 30 per cent of the population has access to the public health services. She informed that there is lack of physicians, nurses, and support workers, and the situation is made worse by the bad conditions of infrastructures, since most of them were destroyed by the war that swept the country.
She further stated that as a result of the precarious health service the life expectancy of Angolans is low, that is, 42 years for males, and 44 years for females.
Albertina Hamukwaia also informed that the rate of HIV/AIDS cases in pregnant women is now of 8.6 per cent, the mortality rate for adults and children is around 500 and 150 thousand, respectively, for an estimate population of 13.387 inhabitants.
The Health minister gave worrying figures such as the country's number of health professional staff, which is 57 thousand and 301, including doctors, nurses and other support personnel.
On a different part of her address, the minister pointed out as priority actions for the Health Ministry the fight against malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, trypanosomiasis, as well as the eradication of poliomyelitis, decrease of measles and tetanus cases, improve maternity services and prompt response to emergency situations, including epidemic deseases.
The Health Ministry has other important immediate objectives which includes the improvement of health services as well as the rehabilitation of equipments and sanitary infrastructures.
In terms of human resources, the Health Ministry intends to create the conditions to place some health professional staff to peripheral areas, and carry out specialization programmes according to the country's sanitary necessities and priorities as well as continuous training of nurses.
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