The management of the provincial health office in Lunda Sul expressed concern yesterday regarding the high number of adolescents and young people with sexually transmitted diseases, between the ages of 15 and 25. Despite the delegation’s efforts to raise awareness, the numbers tend to grow
Yesterday, December 12th, the day of universal health coverage 2023 was celebrated, and the Ministry of Health organized an activity, in Luanda, with all the main health stakeholders, under the motto “Health for all, time to act ”.
On the occasion, the director of the provincial health office in Lunda-Sul, Viega de Almeida, said that one of the major concerns of the health sector in that province are sexually transmitted diseases, which mainly affect young people aged 15 and over.
The province borders the Democratic Republic of Congo and, because of this, they have been working on prevention with the population through the media, giving lectures, in order to reduce the chain of disease transmission.
Without being able to provide exact data, the director of Health in Lunda-Sul, Viega de Almeida said that “the number is quite worrying, as they are young and those aged 25 have been the most affected, mainly with HIV-Aids” , he said.
The “Health for All” project has brought several benefits in that province, especially in the area of training staff for malaria patients; attention focused on ADECOS who work with communities, as well as in the distribution of mosquito nets and anti-malarial supplies.
Still on malaria (which is still considered the main cause of death in our country), the director of Health in Huíla, Paulo Luvangamu, who was also present at the activity, said that they have been carrying out constant work on basic sanitation, cleaning, with local municipal administrations, among others, in order to reduce the number of illnesses resulting from the precarious situation of these types of care.
They have coverage of 5,408 health employees in the province of Huíla, in the public sector alone.
“The diseases that concern the province’s health department are malaria, respiratory diseases, pneumonia and acute diarrheal diseases.
Malaria, as always, leads the number of deaths”, he highlighted. It is important to highlight that this year, according to Paulo Luvangamu, despite having recorded more cases of malaria, few resulted in deaths, because they managed to guarantee medical assistance in all health units.
Uíge still records cases of sleeping sickness
On the other hand, Kauenaweteko Adelaide, director of Health in Uíge, expressed concern regarding the fact that some municipalities continue to be affected by the trypanosomiasis disease, sleeping sickness, such as Quitexe, Ambuila, Bembe and Songo, and the management is working towards to create strategies to overcome this situation.
He also spoke regarding cases of chronic non-communicable diseases, specifically high blood pressure, which has reached health units in an advanced stage.
“Chronic non-communicable diseases are silent diseases and, often, people pay little attention to them and do not consult a doctor. They arrive at health units in an advanced and critical condition.
They present complications such as hypertensive crises and some develop a stroke”, he highlighted. The Minister of Health, Sílvia Lutucuta, reaffirmed, during the activity, the national commitment to children’s and women’s health and the fight once morest major endemic diseases, as well as its commitment to the gradual expansion of the first level of care service network , taking into account geographic, demographic and equity criteria, including human resources and essential equipment.
