MSH commends Malawi’s progress on HIV/AIDS fight and maternal mortality
Vice president of Health Programs for Management Sciences for Health (MSH) Catherin Taylor has commended Malawi for making great progress in reducing maternal mortality and HIV and AIDS prevalence.
Catherin Taylor, Vice President for MSH
Speaking to Mana in an interview Thursday, Taylor who is based in United States of America and was in the country for World Health Organisation conference told Mana that reducing maternal mortality rate by 53 percent between 1990 and 2013 was a remarkable achievement for Malawi.
She said it was pleasing to note that Malawi is among the few countries in the Sub Saharan region which have achieved MDG 4 for child survival by the target year of 2015.
Taylor however expressed concern that despite achieving the remarkable progress in reducing maternal mortality, some quarters in the hard to reach rural areas do not have access to high quality healthcare.
“Malawi has done a huge amount in the recent years to improve the health of mothers, new born babies and children. However too many families especially in the hardest to reach rural districts don’t have access to the high quality care that they need and deserve,” said Taylor.
She said, following the development, her organisation will expand its activities in conjunction with Ministry of Health and USAID so as to help Malawi’s health system deliver care that has the potential to save and improve hundreds of thousands of Malawians lives.
On HIV and AIDS, Taylor commended Malawi for its tireless efforts in the fight against HIV and AIDS which has seen the country reducing HIV prevalence rate and registering a decline in new infections.
New HIV infections fell from 89,000 in 2004 to 42,000 in 2014 according to Vice president of Health Programs.
Taylor attributed this to the country’s political commitment which she described as remarkable.
“Just this week we witnessed this again when the Minister of Health Dr Kumpalume launched a new network for improving quality of care for maternal, newborn and child health supported by WHO, UNICEF and other organisations,” she said.
MSH has been supporting Malawi’s efforts to strengthen its health system with a special focus on disease prevention, reducing maternal, newborn, and child mortality, and on expanding access to quality services since 2003.
MSH also leads the District Health System Strengthening and Quality Improvement for Service Delivery (DHSS) project, funded by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)) under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), supporting the Ministry of Health in implementing its national strategic plan for HIV and AIDS.
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