Mission recommends radical action for public health

A joint WHO/UNICEF mission to the DRC in late June has said that to reverse the mortality and morbidity trends in that country, “a massive attack” is needed on major diseases, HIV/AIDS and malnutrition which are the main causes of death. It said health care must be drastically shifted from facility-based curative care to a public health approach focused on the main killers: malaria, measles, epidemic and immunisable diseases, respiratory infections (including TB), diarrhoeal disease and complications of pregnancy. It said that health workers remuneration must be separated from payment by patients and “contract” projects and linked to performance of a package which directly targets the main killers, both in health centre and at household level. [For full story, see separate IRIN item of 10 July headlined “DRC: Healthcare system not reducing mortality rate”].