The United States will continue to assist Zambia in attaining the global health targets for maternal and neonatal health, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malaria.
Charge d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Lusaka, Linissa Wahid told Health Minister Dr. Elijah Muchima yesterday that the U.S. government would continue to cooperate with Zambia in the key health sector areas and render fiscal assistance towards those goals.
Wahid expressed her government’s pleasure at Zambia’s reaching the HIV/AIDS/TB epidemic control threshold, prioritizing maternal and child health, and increasing family planning access among women and girls.
While commending the strides made in family planning, Wahid asked the government to consider revising the age limit for accessing family planning services to maximize the benefits.
She also applauded Zambia for being among the first African countries to establish a disease surveillance and response center.
The Zambia National Public Health Institute is a specialized technical institution, established in 2020. It is mandated to lead in safeguarding Zambia’s health security through surveillance and disease intelligence systems, emergency preparedness and response capabilities, specialized laboratory systems and networks, health information management systems, health security workforce development, and generation of scientific evidence through research.
Health Minister Muchima lauded the U.S. government for being Zambia’s largest health sector cooperating partner and donor, contributing about US$400 million in technical and financial support yearly.
He expressed optimism that the U.S. government would also support other critical health sector issues, including nutrition, infrastructure, and cold chain.
He also stated that his ministry had submitted a draft concept note to USAID for consideration to support commodity security and ongoing issues at the Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies Agency and that a forensic audit to identify obstacles to achieving total commodity security had advanced.
