Health minister reports on AIDS, malaria, TB

Angolan Health Minister Albertina Hamukuaya said in the city of Huambo last week that about 470,000 HIV-positive cases have been recorded in the country between 1985 and 1999, the official news agency Angop reported. Hamukuaya said that the national health system has helped over 45,000 HIV or AIDS patients. In another development, Hamukuaya said malaria was the single most important cause of death among women and children in the country. She said that 276,012 malaria cases were reported in 1999, of these, 25,572 resulted in death. According to Hamukuaya, at this stage the Health Ministry is implementing a programme to “roll back malaria”. The programme’s aim is to supply people at large with more information on the disease, rapid access to treatment and low cost anti-malaria medicines. Hamukuaya also stressed that the number of tuberculosis cases had increased “quite frighteningly”. She said this required a joint intervention, and that the “important weapons to fight it are easy access to medicines, a capacity to diagnose this disease and an ability to provide relevant information”.