USAID releases $2.2m to Zimbabwes health sector |
| Published: 18/03/2009 |
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has released an additional US$2.2 million package of emergency initiatives for malaria, measles, and essential drugs to support Zimbabwe’s failing health systems. The US government agency gave US$1.7 million for the expansion of Zimbabwe’s medical supply logistics system to ensure that drugs and commodities were properly coordinated, managed, and reached the intended beneficiaries, US ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee said in a statement. An additional US$200 000 for malaria prevention will enable the Ministry of Health’s national mosquito spraying programme to complete its mission this season, while another US$300 000 will go towards the national measles vaccination campaign. “The United States of America will continue to support life-saving assistance programmes for the Zimbabwean people,” said McGee in the statement released yesterday. “The cholera crisis is just one terrible result of a much larger, systemic failure of the health system that needs to be addressed.” Cholera has killed over 4 000 people since its outbreak last August. The indoor residual spraying programme would prevent malaria among more than two million Zimbabweans living in high-risk districts that were left unprotected. With the US and other donor support, the measles campaign aims to vaccinate 1.7 million children aged between nine and 59 months throughout Zimbabwe. Support to the medical supply and logistics system will help the Ministry of Health coordinate procurement of drugs and health commodities, adequately store and distribute these products as well as collect data that will allow programme managers to properly forecast requirements. This recent contribution brings the total US humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe ’s food and health crisis to over US$260 million since October 2007. The US is the leading food donor, providing nearly 70 percent of all international food aid distributed in Zimbabwe through NGOs and the UN World Food Programme this year. In addition, the US will contribute over US$30 million this year for HIV and Aids programmes, in addition to paying for 33 percent of the Global Fund’s multilateral programmes. |
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