Mon, 28 Nov 2016 17:14:18 +0000
MINISTRY of Health is working on a programme to take family planning to school girls to prevent early pregnancy and avoid medical complications as a result.
Lusaka provincial medical officer Kennedy Malama said the ministry would not manage to deal with the problem alone, but was already working on plans to engage other stakeholders such as the Ministry of Education and other partners to deal with the problem of school girl pregnancies.
He said the problem of school girls falling pregnant did not only affect their education, but also their health as they developed pregnancy-related complications which were life threatening.
He explained that because of the young age, young girls who got pregnant faced major complication at child birth that risked the lives of both the young mother and the unborn child.
“The Ministry of Health cannot do this alone but need to work with stakeholders such as the Ministry of Education as well as other partners involved in reproductive health education.
“Chances of complications are very high for the teenagers to go through the process of pregnancy, and child delivery,” he said.
He said this at the orientation workshop for the National Health Week to be launched today under the theme “A healthier Zambia begins with you, me and the family” hands up to Health promotion and disease prevention” beginning on November 28 to December 3, 2016.
He said the Ministry of Health was not only about treatment of disease, but would like to expand its scope to influence a healthy lifestyle to improve wellness of the body to avoid both communicable and non-communicable diseases.
He explained that a healthy population was not about effective treatment, but the ability to protect the body against disease, whether acquired or developed as a result of the way of life especially dietetic and lack of exercise.
“The goal is to improve wellness, prevent ill-health and stimulate efforts for personal responsibility for health. “This is in line with the Government’s vision of “A nation of healthy and productive people,” he said.
He said the country has so far made great progress in cutting down the maternal mortality rate from 510 deaths per 100 000 live births to 398 per 100 000 live births although he explained that they would not sit back until they reached zero maternal deaths.
He charged that women have continued to deliver at home, which had contributed to the deaths owing to some myths and traditional practices in some cases, while distance to health facilities still posed a threat to attaining maternal mortality.
On the health week, Dr. Malama explained that Monday November 28 was dedicated to health diets and lifestyle to encourage wellness and fitness as a key to maintaining health bodies.
Tuesday has been dedicated to cancer screening with free services across the country to encourage checkups especially for cervical and breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in males aged over 40 years.
Wednesday would focus on Malaria including education on the right use of mosquitoe nets with increased misuse of fishing and wedding dresses in some parts of the country.
Thursday’s theme would look at the HIV/AIDS 90/90/90 targets in line with Zambia’s achievements in attaining the goals, and Friday would deal with communicable diseases and the environment including water borne diseases with the onset of the rains.
And he explained that Saturday was targeted at safe motherhood, family planning and child health as the cornerstone of healthy households.
