THE Tanzanian government has appreciated the World Health Organisation (WHO) for showing deliberate cooperation to the country which led to timely curbing of the Marburg Virus.
Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Grace Maghembe, made the statement on Tuesday this week on behalf of the Minister for portfolio, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, at the ongoing WHO Africa meeting which involves the continent health ministers in Gaborone City, Botswana.
The meeting which kicked off on August 27 is expected to be concluded Tomorrow.
Ms Maghembe said WHO's support toward combating the virus enabled the country to prevent its further spread to other regions across the country thus winning the diseases which threatened citizens' lives.
She said it is necessary for the African countries to be facilitated to improve the health ecosystem that will allow them to prevent and understand viral diseases for timely response to stop them when they occur.
Ms Maghembe called upon the WHO to design legal frameworks for medicine and vaccine manufacturing, market for health equipment, transfer of technology and medical research for African nations to have the ability of confronting emerging diseases outbreak on time as the developed nations do.
On fighting Sexual Transmitted Diseases especially the Acquire Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), she said the country has made great achievements by getting into the list of five countries which hit the 95-95-95 global target on mitigating AIDS.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
The 95-95-95 targets is the United Nations (UN) benchmark on fighting AIDS that ensure diagnose 95 per cent of all HIV-positive individuals, provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART) to 95 per cent of those diagnosed and achieve viral suppression to 95 per cent of those treated by 2030.
"So far in our country 95 per cent of people with AIDS have been screened to know their health condition of which 98 per cent are using antiretroviral while 97 of them have achieved viral suppression," Dr Maghembe said.
She said the country under President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan is utilising a various approach to boost provision of health services such as medical infrastructural expansion among other hospitals, dispensaries, inputting modern medical equipment as well as adding doctors for smooth delivery of services.
She said the Six Phase Government has employed about 29,000 health services providers of whom 80 per cent have been allocated to dispensaries, health centres and district hospitals.
Tanzania in June this year declared the end of the Marburg Virus Disease outbreak which was confirmed just over two months ago (on March 21) in the Kagera Region.
