By HOPE BWALYA
GOVERNMENT has released about K45 million to address the country’s drug debt in order to boost health service delivery to the public.
Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya said yesterday that as of December 2016, the government had reduced to K150 million the debt owed to suppliers that had originally stood at about K686 million.
Dr Chilufya was speaking during a meeting with ambassadors accredited to Zambia and other health partners in Lusaka yesterday.
“By December 2016, Government had reduced the drug debt from K686 million to K150 million. We had paid that to show our commitment to addressing the supply chain. Significant to note is that we have reduced our drug debt by 70 per cent plus…this year already Government has released K45 million to address some of the debt that remained,” he said.
Dr Chilufya said to ensure that the country did not accumulate another big debt, it was necessary that the Ministry of Finance released the funds on time. Government has allocated K769 million in this year’s Budget.

CHILUFYA

Referring to the case of drugs found to have expired last year, among them ARVs for the treatment of HIV-AIDS, Dr Chilufya said his ministry would ensure there was a match between the drugs and the medical needs of patients to avoid a similar situation.
British High Commissioner to Zambia Fergus Cochrane-Dyet said his country recognised the successes Zambia had made in reducing the
HIV/AIDS prevalence rate from 15.6 percent in 2002 to 11.6 percent in 2016 and the reduction of new infections to 41 per cent in the same time frame.
He said Zambia had also made strides in ensuring that more than 800,000 people with HIV/AIDS were on ARVs.
However, Mr Cochrane-Dyet said there was still more to be done as the HIV/AIDS prevalence rates among adolescent females were still high at 14.5 per cent compared to 8.6 per cent of males of the same age.
He said his Government and other health partners remained committed to improving the health of Zambians.