* The national target was to reduce the new HIV infections from 33,000 to 11,000 between 2019 and 2025
* And as of today, the health authorities have reduced new infections to 17,700
By Duncan Mlanjira
On the progress made in the health sector, President Lazarus Chakwera announced in his State of the National Address (SONA) that new HIV infections have been tremendously reduced and have reached the UNAIDS treatment targets.
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He said the national target was to reduce the new HIV infections from 33,000 to 11,000 between 2019 and 2025, and as of today, the health authorities have reduced new infections to 17,700.
He announced that major milestones that have achieved in the health sector over the last year are:
* Successful installation of 894 solar direct drive fridges, constructed cold rooms in Zomba, Mzimba South and Mangochi districts, installed 35 solar backup power systems at district vaccine stores, and procured vaccine refrigerated vehicles;
* Successfully delivered the promise of establishing the Public Health Emergency Operating Centre (PHEOC) which is now fully functional as a command centre for supporting emergency response efforts in the event of any crisis, including polio, CoVID-19 and cholera;
* Also made remarkable progress in efforts to reach the UNAIDS 95-95-95 treatment targets — currently at 95-99-94 on these targets;
* Target of reducing maternal deaths to 350 per 100,000 live births is on course. Since February 2022, 523 skilled birth attendants have been trained in basic emergency obstetric and newborn care and procured 74 ambulances with ORT funds and 76 with support from the Global Fund. The efforts have led to a reduction in maternal deaths to 349 per 100,000 live births, according to UNICEF;
* In the past two years, training and mentorship programs for family planning have been conducted for 489 pharmacy personnel and service providers in supply chain management and logistics.
He said: “This has increased the modern contraceptive prevalence rate from 38.1% in 2012 to 62.1% for married women in 2022” adding that the National Population Policy has been finalized and endorsed by Cabinet in January 2023 — “setting us on a path to achieve our international target of 60% modern contraceptive prevalence rate by 2030.
“In the fight against tuberculosis, we have seen a reduction in the incidence of TB from 141 cases per 100,000 people in 2020 to 132 cases per 100,000 people in 2022. Our treatment success rate has also increased from 88% to 90%.
“We have successfully recruited 6,766 health care workers who have been deployed to various health facilities across the nation, and we will support them accordingly.
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“The National Cancer Center is now offering chemotherapy services, which is a great development in our efforts to treat cancers and we have completed the construction of Phalombe District Hospital and officially opened it, and the facility is now operational.
“We have also finished constructing the main building of the Lilongwe Institute of Orthopedic and Neurosurgery (LION) at the Kamuzu Central Hospital and equipment installation is underway in readiness for its official opening this April.
“We have finished constructing Area 23 Health Centre facility equipped with an OPD, maternity, waiting home, laboratory, drug store, dead body hold room, and five staff houses.
“The area of public health service delivery that now needs urgent attention is the supply of medicines, for we currently have a 50% to 60% availability rate of essential medicines in our hospitals, and we will be prioritizing this area in pursuit of our goal of 95% availability at the health facility level.
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“It is simply not right for Malawians to be going to hospitals where there are no medicines, or hospitals that are not clean, or hospitals that have no order, or hospitals that leave patients unattended.
“Similarly, Madam Speaker, we will prioritize increasing access to health facilities by continuing the construction of the 900 rural health units we started last year to ensure that we reduce the distance our people walk to access health services. And now that Phalombe District Hospital is done, Chikwawa, Rumphi, and Dowa are next.
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