Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
Dem Rep Congo Needs Serious Help for Health
Kinshasa, Jul 5 (Prensa Latina) Democratic Republic of Congo Health Minister Victor Makwenge requested assistance from the international community Thursday because of the somber health situation in the country at present.
Makwenge submitted the request at the opening of the fourth International Congress on Infectious and Parasitic Pathologies, in session in Kinshasa.
According to the minister, DR Congo is the hardest hit of all countries on the African Continent by Human African Trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness and caused by single-celled parasites, with more than 10,000 cases a year and 70 percent of the current cases in the region.
He also spoke about malaria, which causes the death of tens of thousands of people, as does measles.
Regarding HIV AIDS, he specified that only eight percent of the hundreds of thousands who are HIV seropositive are treated with anti-retrovirus.
In the last five years, Makwenge pointed out, epidemics such as poliomyelitis and hemorrhagic fever have reappeared, and others, like Ebola Virus and Marburg Disease remain present.
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={A8B25FCE-6F50-4309-9BD8-EE101897B24D})&language=EN
Kinshasa, Jul 5 (Prensa Latina) Democratic Republic of Congo Health Minister Victor Makwenge requested assistance from the international community Thursday because of the somber health situation in the country at present.
Makwenge submitted the request at the opening of the fourth International Congress on Infectious and Parasitic Pathologies, in session in Kinshasa.
According to the minister, DR Congo is the hardest hit of all countries on the African Continent by Human African Trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness and caused by single-celled parasites, with more than 10,000 cases a year and 70 percent of the current cases in the region.
He also spoke about malaria, which causes the death of tens of thousands of people, as does measles.
Regarding HIV AIDS, he specified that only eight percent of the hundreds of thousands who are HIV seropositive are treated with anti-retrovirus.
In the last five years, Makwenge pointed out, epidemics such as poliomyelitis and hemorrhagic fever have reappeared, and others, like Ebola Virus and Marburg Disease remain present.
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={A8B25FCE-6F50-4309-9BD8-EE101897B24D})&language=EN