11 June 2009
THE Government will ensure that the country has more skilled, disciplined and motivated midwives to promote the cost-effective and quality health services for all.
And the Behavioural Surveillance Survey conducted by Corridors of Hope (COH) has revealed that condom use among Zambians has increased although people are not using them consistently.
Health Minister, Kapembwa Simbao said in Lusaka yesterday that the crisis in health human resources had a terrible effect on the lives of children.
Mr Simbao said in a speech read for him by the director of public health, Victor Mukonka, that investing in midwives would reduce the high maternal and child mortality rates.
He was speaking when he launched the programme dubbed 'Investing in midwives skills to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) three, four, five, and six.
"Zambia continues to be ranked amongst the countries with high maternal and child mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa and the world as a whole. This is discomforting," he said.
Mr Simbao said to accomplish the MDGs by 2015, there was need to strengthen outreach or mobile health services and improve access to child health care services.
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) country director, Duah Sarfo said achieving the MDGs required a global commitment to grow a strong and educated midwifery to provide effective quality health delivery services.
The cross-sectional survey on condom use was conducted in Chirundu, Kapiri Mposhi, Solwezi and Livingstone and targeted a population of female sex workers, long distance truck drivers and out-of-school, unemployed and unmarried youths.
The study found that knowledge of condom use was high among the females, including sex workers, but there was no consistency, which posed a challenge to the reduction of HIV/AIDS.
The survey results were revealed at Pamodzi Hotel in Lusaka yesterday by consultants from the University of Zambia (UNZA), and the project was executed in partnership with the Ministry of Health and National AIDS Council (NAC).
NAC programmes director, Alex Simwanza said the behavioural surveillance survey conducted by COH had helped NAC and other interested organisations to understand behaviour changes taking place in some of the most vulnerable populations.
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) mission director, Melissa Williams said surveys were designed to capture high-risk groups that population-based household surveys did not reach.
She said the behaviour of these groups influenced the course of the HIV epidemic through various sexual networks.
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