The Global Fund Regional Manager, Nicolas Cantau, has said in Freetown that the Global Fund has supported the country’s health sector through three different aspects -human resources on health, procurement and supply chain to ensure medicines reach the patients and on strengthening the availability and usage of data.
The Regional Manager made this disclosure during a recent courtesy call on President Julius Maada Bio at State House.
Mr. Cantau expressed his organisation’s satisfaction with the achievements already made in the health sector, particularly in the fight against malaria. He further disclosed that the mortality rate has been reduced to 50% in the last ten to fifteen years. He also observed that great progress was being made in dealing with HIV.
He called for the support of President Bio by attending a conference where commitment is often made by world leaders to support the cause. This, he noted, is against the backdrop that they will have all the tools, medicines and strategies to overcome the three diseases but leadership remains a huge challenge.
President Bio thanked the Global Fund Envoy and disclosed that with the support of the Global Fund, Sierra Leone has been able to keep in check some several cases of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria and added that under normal circumstances it would be extremely difficult to deal with by a country with very meager resources. He assured the Global Fund Manager that government will do everything possible to support their efforts.
President Bio informed the Global Fund Manager that the health sector sits very well in his government’s flagship project of human capital development, noting that all what they want to achieve together would not be successful without a strong health system.
The Fund is a 21st century partnership organization designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics.