Improvement in health sector helps increase life expectancy in Mozambique

Mozambican health authorities said in central Zambezia province on Thursday that investments registered in the health sector have contributed to increase in the country's life expectancy from 42 to 53 years in the last 10 years.

According to the Deputy National Director of Public Health, Quinhas Fernando, the increase in the number of health units, training and distribution of qualified health staff such as doctors are among the reasons behind this improvement.

There are also the annual vaccination campaigns carried out by the Health Ministry to prevent children from getting diseases, as well to reduce the number of children who die under the age of 5, mobilization of the community to campaigns for prevention of diseases such as cholera and malaria.

According to the Maputo daily paper Noticias, 75 percent of the country's population now have access to health units.

The number of health units in rural areas where the majority of the Mozambican people live rose to 1,400 last year compared to 450 in 1975 when the country gained independence.

Health authorities have continued with investments in the sector to reach more people who are forced to walk long distances to access a health unit. The authorities have also created services in the rural areas that will help decentralize the hospital such as the provincial hospital in Quelimane, the capital city of Zambezia Province.

As part of this process, the country's Health Minister, Nazira Abdula, has inaugurated four new laboratories which will decentralize the services that were only possible in the hospitals. Endit