Zambia launches Household Health Expenditure and Utilization Survey Report

LUSAKA-Zambia's health challenges are reported to culminate from social determinants of health than the usual attribution to Communicable diseases.

In response to this reality, the Zambian government through the Ministry of Health working with the Central Statistical Office and the University of Zambia with support from the Department for International Development and other cooperating partners undertook the Zambia Household Health Expenditure and Utilization Survey (ZHHEUS) in order to estimate the household health expenditure and utilization levels in the country.  

Officiating at the ZHHEUS Report launch, Minister of Health Dr. Chitalu Chilufya assured the nation that government is addressing the challenges highlighted in the report and has since pledged to address the status quo by adding the revealed evidence to planning and policy.

Dr. Chilufya responded to the human resource challenge noted in the report that government is up to the task and will recruit 7,400 health workers in 2017 of which over 5,000 have already been given provisional letters pending finalization of payrolls slated for January 2017.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.

“These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources at global, national and local levels” WHO reports “The social determinants of health are mostly responsible for health inequities - the unfair and avoidable differences in health status seen within and between countries”

Health seeking behavior is one other key facet in answering the question of what majority of people do in the country when faced with ill health.

The report revealed that about 38.3 percent of the population of 15 million Zambians do not report illnesses and only about 21.3 percent do report illnesses.This is mainly due to factors like cost of health service, distance to facility, religious reasons and perceived poor quality of health care services. Self-medication and perceptions are also reported to be high.

An Analyst from the University of Zambia, Department of Economics, Bona Chitah said that it is surprising to find that households do not seek medical interventions despite them realizing ill health.

“There is a tendency of not seeking medical intervention” said Mr Chitah “Households are spending a large amount of money on health care”

He adds that one of the key findings of the survey is that utilization rate of health facilities is relatively low. The public health system is by far the largest due to affordability concerns. 

“(Government) should quickly move in to reduce the imbalances in terms of major expenses” said Dr. Chitah

UN/Zambia Partiners to Fight NCDs

LUSAKA-The United Nations has challenged its member states including Zambia to heighten efforts in the fight against Non Communicable Diseases reported to be on the rise world over. NCDs are capable of decreasing the labour force, reducing productivity and ultimately reducing economic growth, the UN said.

This was revealed during the Joint UN Interagency Taskforce on the prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases to the Republic of Zambia from 4^th to 8^th December, 2016.

Taskforce head, Dr. Nick Banatvala, who is also leading the Secretariat of the UN Interagency Taskforce on NCDs at the World Health Organization-WHO Headquarters in Geneva has challenged Zambians to adopt healthy lifestyles in order to prevent NCDs.

Dr. Banatvala said that Zambians can prevent NCDs by engaging in regular physical exercises and improving their nutrition. He adds that child obesity is also on the increase in Zambia which has the potential to eventually lead to more cases of adult obesity if not controlled.

Meanwhile, WHO Country Representative Jacob Mufunda told journalists during a Joint UN Interagency brief in Lusaka that Zambia is hit by four major NCDs which are cardiovascular diseases including heart diseases and strokes, cancers, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases.  

Dr. Mufunda further calls for a multi-sectoral approach in this battle adding that NCDs are mostly socially determined.

It is reported that over 38 million people die from NCDs each year, including 16 million people who die prematurely before their 70^th birthday. Most premature NCD deaths are from four main behavioural risk factors which are tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, physical inactivity and unhealthy diets.

Government, through the Ministry of Health, recently launched the National Health Week with emphasis on disease prevention in the bid to drive to the Ministry of Health vision “A Nation of Healthy and Productive People”