Foreign funds provides some good news for health sector

The Norwegian Agency for Development on Tuesday earmarked approximately US $1.1 million for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Zimbabwe to purchase and distribute essential medicines. An acute shortage of foreign currency has crippled the health system, with the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare unable to finance urgently needed drugs to treat some of the most basic health conditions. Many rural health facilities are at a standstill. Fuel shortages, combined with a shortage of qualified staff, have left the public health system unable to meet the growing health needs of the population. And as the rainy season begins, the potential outbreak of malaria and water-borne diseases such as cholera, if left unchecked, could have lethal repercussions, especially for young children who are most vulnerable to these diseases, a UNICEF statement said. Zimbabwe's crumbling health sector last week received a major financial boost when the Geneva-based Global Fund donated US $24 million for the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Dr David Chitate, executive director of the National AIDS Council (NAC) was quoted by local media as saying that although the funds were not yet available, a total of US $7 million would be used in the fight against AIDS, while the remainder would be used in malaria and tuberculosis control and mitigation programmes. Chitate said the NAC would administer the funds, but was yet to come up with a detailed budget or programme proposals, which were pre-requisites for disbursement. An estimated 33.7 percent of Zimbabwean adults are HIV-positive. The Global Fund donation comes at a time when the government has struggled to find the money for an anti-malaria spraying programme, while tuberculosis, which was brought under control in the 1980s, had re-emerged as a major health problem.