Amref pledges $6.5m to Ugandan health sector
The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) Health Africa has pledged to boast the Ugandan health sector with 6.5 million dollars over the next five years.
The effort is part of Amref Health Africa's continued effort to enable access to affordable and quality health care in Africa and Uganda.
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Abenet Berhanu, the country director for Amref Health Africa in Uganda made the revelation while speaking to the press today.
Berhanu says Amref will work with government organisations to improve access to adequate medical care for all Ugandans. He says this is part of a five year plan.
In the 2018- 2022 strategic plan, Amref will work to develop and sustain human resource in the health sector. The aim of this strategy is to improve the odds of ordinary Ugandans getting access to healthcare.
Amref says that in the last strategic period 2007-2017, their efforts have led to an improvement of the health sector worker population per 1000 from 1:29 in 2014 to 1:79 in 2017.
Berhanu says that Uganda is still struggling with many challenges in the health sector. The Ugandan national HIV prevalence rate stands at 6.2% with it being higher in women at 7.6% compared to men at 4.7%. Although Malaria's prevalence rate has reduced from 42% following a Malaria Indicator Survey (MIS) in 2014, it is still the leading cause of death among Ugandans accountable for 19% deaths in Uganda.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) also reports that 24.3% of Uganda's adult population suffer from hypertension, 1.3% have diabetes and 5% are obese.
Uganda's Ministry of Health research indicates, however, that at least 75% of the country's disease burden is preventable.
Amref is thus committed to helping Uganda battle some of these challenges. The 6.5million dollar pledge comes at a time when Amref is celebrating 60 years of its existence worldwide and 30 years in Uganda.
In its six decade service, Amref has been able to reach 110 million people with 80 million of them being women and children. Amref has served 22,360,900 people in Uganda itself.
