Rais na Mkurugenzi Mkuu wa Shirika la EngenderHealth, Ulla Muller akizungumza na wadau wa afya na wadau wa Elimu kuhusiana na Uzazi wa Mpango wakati wa hafla fupi iliyofanyika jijini Dar es Salaam kwaajili ya Kumkaribisha hapa nchini.Naibu Mkurugenzi Mkazi wa Shirika la EngenderHealth, Feddy Mwanga akizungumza na wadau wa Afya na elimu wakati wa kumkaribisha Rais na Mkurugenzi Mkuu wa Shirika la EngenderHealth, Ulla Muller jijini Dar es Salaam.Rais na Mkurugenzi Mkuu wa Shirika la EngenderHealth, Ulla Muller akizungumza na wadau wa afya pamoja na wadau wa elimu katika hafla fupi ya kumkaribisha hapa nchini.Mkurugenzi Mkazi wa shirika la EngenderHealth hapa nchini, Richard Killian akibadilishana mawazo na baadhi ya wadau wa afya na elimu katika hafla ya Kumkaribisha Rais na Mkurugenzi Mkuu wa Shirika la EngenderHealth, Ulla Muller hapa nchini.
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Improving preterm birth outcomes: WHO launches new guidance
World Prematurity Day is a day on which countries around the world seek to raise awareness of the devastating consequences of preterm birth. Every year, around 15 million babies are born preterm, that is to say born before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy. Complications of preterm birth are the leading cause of death amongst children under five years of age, responsible for nearly one million deaths in 2013. Without appropriate treatment, survivors of complications of preterm birth are at increased risk of lifelong disability and poor quality of life.
We can save many more babies with effective interventions. We must focus our efforts on how to improve the outcomes for babies that are born preterm.Dr Femi Oladapo, Department of Reproductive Health and Research
New guidance
WHO’s new guidance WHO recommendations on interventions to improve preterm birth outcomes has been launched to help prevent the complications and consequences of preterm birth. Adding to efforts worldwide to further reduce child mortality, the guidance offers recommendations on interventions which can be provided to the mother when preterm birth is imminent and to the preterm infant after birth, with the aim of improving outcomes for preterm infants.
Key interventions
A set of key interventions are included in the new guidance, which can improve the chance of survival and health outcomes for preterm infants. It includes interventions provided to the mother – for example steroid injections before birth, antibiotics when her water breaks, and magnesium sulfate to prevent future neurological impairment of the child – as well as interventions for the baby – for example thermal care (keeping the baby warm), safe oxygen use, and use of surfactant (a specific medicine) to help infants breathe more easily.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Tanzanians spend 173bn/- abroad for NCDs treatment
Tanzanians spend between US$70 million (about 151,5bn/-) and US$80 million annually (about 173.2bn/-) on specialized treatment abroad, a prominent Indian hospital has said in a note on its relationship with the country.
According to Apollo Group of Hospitals, the money is mostly spent on the treatment of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which are increasingly becoming a huge burden on the shoulders of the national healthcare system.
“The country’s current capacity to treat heart diseases, open heart surgery, cancer, kidney problems and neurosurgery is very low, and many people are choosing to travel abroad to Indian hospitals such as Apollo Hospitals,” its Chief Executive Dr Hari Prasad said in the note.
Heart disease is the second leading cause of death in Tanzania after malaria, claiming 287 lives a day or 104,755 lives a year, according to the Tanzanian Cardiac Hospital Foundation.
The organization has it that 20 per cent of all the deaths in the country stems from lack of medical facilities and poverty. NCDs account for 124,930 (31 per cent) of the 403,000 deaths that occur in the country annually.
According to the latest WHO non-communicable disease country profiles, global mortality due to NCDs continues to rise. The report says 38 million people die each year of NCDs. People aged between 30 and 70 comprise nearly half of those who die of these diseases in developing countries.
“Apollo Hospitals is a well-known group amongst Tanzanians, as several top government officials, businessmen and women, and hundreds of heart patients are known to have received specialized treatment from the facilities,” the note released recently reads in part.
Tanzanians are the second most medical tourists to India from Africa after Nigerians. Africa’s largest economy leads the chart with 42.4 per cent of the 34, 522 Nigerians, who visited India, going there for medical treatment.
According to the New Delhi-based Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), out of the 23,345 Tanzanians who visited India in 2013, 4,319 were medical tourists.
RIS says in a report that most of these were treated at facilities of Apollo Hospitals.
Immediate former President Jakaya Kikwete visited the hospital during his state visit to India in June. During the June 17 to June 21visit, Mr Kikwete reaffirmed Tanzania’s commitment to partner with the group.
“Offering world renowned medical services at a fraction of other leading international centres has been Apollo Hospital’s drive for medical tourism. Apollo has today grown into the premier destination for various Tanzanians seeking advanced health care solutions,” the group said in the note.
“Recent noteworthy achievements include the successful surgery separation of Tanzanian conjoined twins,” it added.
Apollo Hospitals specialists often visit Tanzania for medical camps to provide their expertise and medical assistance to locally-based patients. Specialist doctors at Apollo have also offered training services to many Tanzanian doctors and nurses over the last few years.
Woman’s risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes nearly halved over 25 years – UN report
Maternal mortality has fallen by 44 per cent since 1990, United Nations agencies and the World Bank reported, giving fresh impetus to efforts to reach by 2030 the virtual elimination of women’s chances of dying from pregnancy-related causes as part of the new UN Sustainable Development Goals.
“Maternal deaths around the world dropped from about 532,000 in 1990 to some 303,000 this year, according to the report by the World Health Organization, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Population Fund, the World Bank Group and the UN Population Division, which is part of the UN Secretariat.
The analyses contained in Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2015 – Estimates by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank Group and the United Nations Population Division, are being published simultaneously in the medical journal The Lancet.
Maternal mortality is defined as the death of a woman during pregnancy, childbirth or within six weeks after birth, according to the report.
“Over the past 25 years, a woman’s risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes has nearly halved,” said Dr. Flavia Bustreo, WHO Assistant Director-General, Family, Women’s and Children’s Health. “That’s real progress, although it is not enough. We know that we can virtually end these deaths by 2030 and this is what we are committing to work towards.”
A new Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in September 2015, aims to help achieve the ambitious target of reducing maternal deaths to fewer than 70 per 100,000 live births globally, as included in the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs).
Friday, October 16, 2015
Govt rolls out birth registration by mobile phone
Tanzania has launched a nationwide drive to help parents register their children's births by mobile phone so the government can better plan health, education and other public services.
The new system being rolled out across the country over the next five years allows a health worker to send the baby's name, sex, date of birth and family details by phone to a central data base and a birth certificate is issued free of charge in days.
The initiative is run by the government registration agency RITA, UNICEF and telecommunications company Tigo.
RITA's acting head Emmy Hudson said the project had accelerated birth registration after years of stagnation.
The country has one of the lowest rates of birth registration in eastern and southern Africa. Some 80 percent of Tanzanians - and more than nine in 10 under-fives - do not have birth certificates, according to the 2012 census.
Parents have to pay 3,500 Tanzanian shillings ($1.6) if they request a birth certificate within 90 days of a child's birth, or 4,000 shillings afterwards, as well as travel costs - a high price in a country where many rural people live on less than $1 a day.
The government expects to register about a million children under the age of five before the end of this year, and 90 per cent of all newborns within the next five years.
Anna Mbelwa, who gave birth to a baby boy at Mbalizi Hospital in the southern Mbeya Region this month, said the initiative made a big difference.
"I was very impressed because it usually takes a long time to get a birth certificate," Mbelwa told Reuters news agency.
"It was very inconvenient before since parents had to travel a long distance to the district registrar only to be told their children's files were missing." Mbelwa added.
Most parents in rural areas of Tanzania do not register their children because of the steep cost, long distances to registry offices, cumbersome process and lack of awareness of the benefits.
Globally, around 290 million children do not possess a birth certificate, according to UNICEF.
RITA was officially launched on the 23rd June 2006 and replaces what was known as the Administrator Generals Department in the Attorney Generals Chambers, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.
It is an Executive Agency under the Attorney Generals Chambers in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.
The history of RITA dates back in 1917 when the German Colonial power enacted a law for registration of births and deaths (Proclamation No.15 of 1917 (Civil Area).
When the British took over the administration of Tanganyika (Tanzania Mainland) from the Germans retained the Register of births and deaths established under the Germans law by saving it under the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance, 1920 (Cap.108).
It should be noted that under both colonial powers registration of births and deaths was not compulsory for Africans.
Saturday, October 3, 2015
WHO backs 'treat-all' HIV drug plan
Everyone who has HIV should be offered antiretroviral drugs as soon as possible after diagnosis, the World Health Organisation says.
This latest policy removes previous limits suggesting patients wait until the disease progresses.
The WHO has also recommended people at risk of HIV be given the drugs to help prevent the infection taking hold.
UNAIDS said these changes could help avert 21 million AIDS-related deaths and 28 million new infections by 2030.
The recommendations increase the number of people with HIV eligible for antiretrovirals from 28m to 37m across the world.
But the challenge globally will be making sure everyone has access to them and the funds are in place to pay for such a huge extension in treatment. Only 15m people currently get the drugs.
What are antiretrovirals?
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is a combination of medicines used to treat HIV. It is not a cure, but can control the virus so that patients can live a longer, healthier life and reduce the risk of transmitting HIV to others.
The drugs prevent HIV from multiplying, which reduces the amount of the virus in the body.
Having less HIV in the body gives the immune system a chance to recover and fight off infections and cancers.
By reducing the amount of HIV, the medicines also reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to others.
Mark Dybul, executive director of the Global Fund, a private-public initiative which is one of the biggest funders of HIV research and treatment, said: "The recommendations are critically important to moving us towards the fast-track treatment and prevention goals.
"We must embrace the ambition if we are going to end HIV as a public health threat."
Michel Sidibe, of UNAIDS, added: "Everybody living with HIV has the right to life-saving treatment. The new guidelines are a very important steps towards ensuring that all people living with HIV have immediate access to antiretroviral treatment."
The WHO announcement comes after extensive research into the issue.
A US National Institutes of Health study due to run until 2016 was stopped earlyafter an interim analysis found giving treatment straight after diagnosis cut deaths and complications, such as kidney or liver disease, by half.
Source: BBC News
Thursday, October 1, 2015
The Global Goals, Journey towards Sustainable Livelihoods
Across the globe, world leaders are getting ready to adopt the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are essentially an agreed vision to put people and planet on a sustainable path by 2030. This will form the bedrock of a new development agenda that can set the world on a course of action to end poverty, transform lives and protect the planet.
In the United Republic of Tanzania we’re looking forward to the launch of the second phase of the United Nations Development Assistance Plan (UNDAP) and these new Global Goals will help us achieve that. The Goals spell out how we work together to promote dignity, equality, justice, shared prosperity and well-being for all, while protecting the environment. We are the first generation that can end poverty and the last one that can avoid the worst effects of climate change.
I’ve learned from my work with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that setting goals and targets work. For example, UNDP Tanzania is in the process of designing its Country Programme Document (CPD - 2016-2021) i.e. a development assistance strategy in line with government’s priorities and UNDP’s mandate, also the Government of Tanzania is formulating phase two (2) of the Five Year Development Plan (2016/17 -2021/22). We are delighted that both processes have come at an opportune time in line with the adoption of the Global Goals. We look forward to continuing our work in the years to come.
Millions of people’s lives have improved due to concerted efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which serve as the foundation for the next global development agenda. MDGs targets have already been met on reducing poverty, increasing access to improved drinking water sources, improving the lives of slum dwellers and achieving gender parity in primary school. Tanzania is on track to meet three of the seven MDGs: reducing infant and under-five mortality, combating HIV/AIDS and malaria and addressing gender equality. With more effort on the MDGs which are off-track in particular poverty, Tanzania can eliminate extreme poverty by 2030.
Over the past 20 years, the likelihood of a child dying before age five has been nearly cut in half. Globally, the maternal mortality ratio dropped by nearly half. More people than ever before are receiving antiretroviral therapy for HIV-infection. More than six million deaths from malaria were averted due to substantial expansion of malaria interventions. Enormous progress has been made, showing the value of a unifying agenda underpinned by goals and targets. Yet despite this progress, the indignity of poverty has not been ended for all.
That’s why these 17 new Goals will continue this journey towards progress for everyone that aims to go even farther to focus the world on ending poverty, hunger and major health problems, as well as break new ground by setting goals and targets on inequalities, economic growth, decent jobs, energy, climate change, and peace and justice, among others.
I believe we will achieve substantial results by taking on the many interconnected challenges we face together. Taking action to achieve the Global Goals and building greater shared prosperity is in everybody’s best interest and provides enormous investment opportunities that will benefit all people and the planet. Success in this new ambitious agenda for global action will be driven by leaders, governments and people, especially at the local levels. The Goals should matter to all of us, and we all have a shared responsibility for our future.
Let’s focus on our shared problems and work on overcoming the common problems all countries face. With new, interconnected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that apply to all, we can go much further to end all forms of poverty, ensure no one is left behind, tackle unsustainable practices and chart a dignified future for all people in all countries.
UNDP stands ready to support the Government of Tanzania as it develops its plans for making the SDGs a reality. We will work closely with the government, private sector, civil society and many other partners in Tanzania to strive to achieve lasting results for people and planet.
Statement by Mr. Alvaro Rodriguez, United Nations Resident Coordinator, UNDP Resident Representative.
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Govt earmarks 3bn/- seed money for Aids trust fund
The government has set aside a total of Sh3bn for the establishment of an AIDS Trust Fund (ATF) as earlier proposed by Parliament aimed at reducing dependency on donor aid.
The fund basically aims at increasing country‘s domestic resource allocation to the national HIV and AIDS response. The decision to establish the fund was proposed in the last parliament where MPs underscored the importance for the country to build its capacity to serve its HIV patients instead of depending solely on donor aid. In an interview with The Guardian yesterday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) Director for Finance and Administration, Yassin Abbas, said the process for establishment of the fund had started under the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in collaboration with TACAIDS. “When the fund will be in operation, 50 per cent of the funds will be allocated to medication,” Abbas noted. “We are now at the stage of forming a board of trustees which will be composed of eight members, four from the government and the other four from the private sector, along with coming up with guidelines which will oversee the operation of the fund,” he said. According to him, it was no longer certain to obtain funds from donors for HIV/AIDS prevalence because its prevalance in the country had decreased to a large extent and hence it was no longer a priority for their funding. “Therefore, we can no longer depend on their support as it was not guaranteed,” said the director. “The government is not ready to see its citizens suffer from HIV/AIDS due to lack of funds to purchase medicines. We will make sure we are able to serve our people,” Abbas maintained. He added that the government, the private sector and individuals would be major contributors to the fund under a mechanism to be established soon. Among other thing, the fund will focus on impact mitigation for both children and women to ensure that effective medication is constantlly available to them. Abbas also assured the public that, there would be no shortage of ARVs for patients as the Global Fund (GF) was still supplying the medicines to Tanzania. “The government always renews the contract with GF after every two years for them to proceed rendering the services to us, hence we are sure that the society should not fear for their heath,” the Tacaids official said. Abbasi noted that they planned to conduct a fund-raiser that will include stakeholders from private sector, GF and Tacaids, civil society organizations (CSOs) and the government. SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
