Luanda — The Health minister, José Van-Dúnem, said Wednesday in Luanda that the lack of information about complications associated with the diseases and transport are two of the various factors that aggravate maternal death indicators.

José Van-Dúnem was speaking at the swearing-in of members of the Maternal and Neo-Natal Death Prevention Commission.

He on the occasion mentioned that bad roads condition, mainly tertiary ones, poor supply of electricity in the communities and health units as some of the negative factors.

According to the minister, low schooling, imbalanced distribution of human resources, limited reference and counter-reference systems like malnutrition and scarce qualified manpower are some of the factors pushing up maternal death rates.

Meanwhile, the minister said his department is working to strengthen the municipal health system, with a focus on maternal and child death, through the provision of a basic integrated package of health services and care.

He said the programme includes training of personnel, with stress in the areas of midwives and increase of the number of health facilities in municipalities.

The minister stated that the sector is also drafting strategies for the rapid reduction of maternal and child mortality, which includes the implementation of the municipalisation of the health services, aiming at better services of prevention and treatment of diseases that affect the population.

According to the official, the strategy includes reinforcement of the primary services network, with the construction of 15 new municipality hospitals and reinforcement of 1,7776 health posts and centres throughout the country.