Govt sets aside E2.76bn for Health
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LOBAMBA – Government yesterday announced that the Ministry of Health ‘is a priority’. In his budget speech, Neal Rijkenberg said the commitments in terms of budget allocation reaffirmed the position adopted by government a few years ago that the Health sector was a priority.
As a result, he announced government’s allocation of E2.76 billion to the Ministry of Health. Rijkenberg said the Ministry of Health continued to make notable strides in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
In 2021, according to the Swaziland HIV Incidence Measurement Survey (SHIMS III), the ministry reduced the HIV incidence (i.e., new HIV cases) from 1.4 per cent in 2016/2017 to 0.62 per cent and made significant progress towards the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets set for 2025.
He said SHIMS III revealed that 94 per cent of adults, 15 years and older, living with HIV, were aware of their status in Eswatini. The minister of finance said 97 per cent of those aware of their status were on antiretroviral therapy (ART), and 96 per cent of those on ART had achieved viral suppression.
PregNANT
He said government was planning on enrolling even more HIV positive patients on ART by at least 1 974 patients by March 2024. Minister Rijkenberg explained that it meant that targeted HIV positive people on ART would be increased from 204 483 in September 2022 to 206 457 in March 2024. He said the targeted HIV pregnant women on ART would be increased to 98 per cent by March 2024.
On the other hand, the minister said TB success rates would be increased from 84 per cent in September 2022 to 90 per cent in March 2024. Since March 2020, he said the ministry experienced a total of 74 053 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 72 603 recoveries translating to a 98 per cent recovery rate and 1 422 deaths were reported from March 14, 2020 to January 7, 2023.
Minister Rijkenberg encouraged citizens to continue being vigilant by following the guidance given by the Health sector since the fight against COVID-19 was not won yet.
THreATs
In addition, he said the Health sector had established a public health surveillance system to monitor several public health threats such as ebola, malaria and maternal mortality.
The Finance minister said the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) was increasing and required that every citizen should follow a healthy lifestyle. He said the ministry continued to see the dominance of NCDs in the number of cases that the health sector transferred to hospitals within the country, South Africa and Mozambique through the Phalala Fund.
He added that the decentralisation of NCD services had seen an increase to 212 of the targeted 229 primary health facilities. “This is meant to diagnose, treat, or manage it early to reduce the burden so that there will be fewer complicated and costly cases to treat.”
Despite these strides, he said government was still facing challenges to supply medicine effectively and efficiently to emaSwati. He tabled a report that was compiled to shed light on the problems the Ministry of Health was facing in the supply of medicines to emaSwati.