By Linda Kwanjana
Malawi President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera Government has finally completed construction of Zomba District Hospital.
The completion of this project will help to ease the lives of people from the old capital in terms of access to health.
Currently people in Zomba are praising Chakwera for this enormous development.
Speaking during his state of the nation address (SONA), Chakwera told Malawians that his Government is more willing and committed to change health landscape in the country which has suffered due to underfunding.
Chakwera said his Government has already successfully installed 894 solar direct drive fridges, constructed cold rooms in Zomba, Mzimba South and Mangochi districts, installed 35 solar backup power systems at district vaccine stores, and procured vaccine refrigerated vehicles.
President Chakwera has successfully delivered the promise of establishing the Public Health Emergency Operating Centre (PHEOC) which is now fully functional as a command centre for supporting emergency response efforts in the event of any crisis, including Polio, Covid 19 and Cholera.
Chakwera Government has managed more success stories which include reducing new HIV infections and reached the UNAIDS treatment targets.
Chakwera Government target was to reduce new HIV infections from 33,000 to 11,000 between 2019 and 2025, and as of today, the reduced new infections remains at 17,700.
The current Government apart from infrastructure development has managed to make remarkable progress in
efforts to reach the UNAIDS 95-95-95 treatment targets and currently, Malawi is at 95-99-94 on these targets.
Currently, Malawi target of reducing maternal deaths to 350 per 100,000 live births is on course.
Since February 2022, Malawi has trained 523 skilled birth attendants in Basic Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care
and procured 74 ambulances with ORT funds and 76 with support from the Global Fund.
At the same time these efforts have led to a reduction in maternal deaths to 349
per 100,000 live births, according to UNICEF.
The good news does not end there regarding family planning, in the past two years, Malawi has conducted training and mentorship programs for 489 pharmacy personnel and service providers in supply chain management and logistics.
This has increased the modern
contraceptive prevalence rate from 38.1% in 2012 to 62.1% for married women in 2022.
All good news cited above compounded by completion of Zomba Hospital signifies how committed President Chakwera is in improving health sector.
