ETHIOPIA UPDATES STATUS OF HEALTH SECTOR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

The Ethiopian Ministry of Health has announced that a total of $320 million is required to implement its five-year Health Sector Development Program, a plan focused on reducing the impact of malaria in the country. There are approximately 5 million cases of malaria reported annually in Ethiopia, of which many prove fatal due to a lack of available treatments. The Global Fund Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a multinational campaign, has already provided $140 million in funding.

Dadi Jimma, leader of the Malaria and Vector-Borne Diseases Prevention and Control Team unit of the ministry, noted that the plan aims at reducing the mortality rate due to malaria from 23 percent to 10 percent. Existing malaria drugs, said Jimma, would be supplemented by new medications, since the disease has become resistant to many current treatment standards. Non-drug preventative measures, such as the distribution of 6.2 million mosquito nets around the country, are also being developed.