Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 12/4/2003

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U N I T E D N A T I O N S

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Integrated Regional Information Network

CONTENT:

1 - ZIMBABWE: Foreign funds provides some good news for health sector

1 - ZIMBABWE: Foreign funds provides some good news for health sector

HARARE, 3 December (PLUSNEWS) - 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 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.

[ENDS]

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