Zambia Will Not Run Out Of ARVs -Kasonde

Health minister Dr Joseph Kasonde says the government is working hard to ensure that the country does not run out of antiretroviral drugs again.
And Dr Kasonde says his ministry attended to 34,434 patients and conducted 1,746 operations in 18 sites across the country in the first quarter of 2014.
During a press briefing on the first quarter of 2014 in Lusaka yesterday, Dr Kasonde said his ministry was committed to ensuring that antiretroviral drugs were available for all the patients in the country.
“I do not see a situation where the country will run out of ARVs again. We will not experience any shortage of ARVs because we have strong support from the Global Fund and the President’s Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief (PEPFAR),” Dr Kasonde said.
And Dr Kasonde said last year during the same period, 25,923 patients were attended to and 693 operations were conducted.
“The high number this year represents an increase of about 25 per cent in the number of patients seen and more than 100 per cent in the number of oparetaions conducted as compared to the same period last year,” Dr Kasonde said. “There is an increasing demand for mobile health services particularly in areas which are far away from static health facilities.”
Dr Kasonde said more than 1,500 women were screened for cervical cancer countrywide.
Meanwhile, Dr Kasonde said in order to respond to the challenges related to access of quality health service delivery, his ministry had demarcated Lusaka district into four zones.
He said the zoning had been done to improve the referral system and decongest UTH and Levy Mwanawasa General Hospital as each zone would have a first level hospital with several health centres surrounding it.
Dr Kasonde said designed frameworks for converting Matero and Chilenje clinics into district hospitals had already been done and that contractors to build the hospitals had been selected.
He said the total amount for the construction of the hospitals was K92,760,000 while K7,968,000 had been set aside for the procurement of medical equipment for the hospitals.
And Dr Kasonde said the government had this year employed 97 doctors, 176 nurses and 26 paramedics.
He said the recruitment exercise for health professionals was a continuous process as more were expected to be employed in the second quarter.

Posted by Admin on May 1, 2014. Filed under HEALTH. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.