WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
WHO Angola Update
May 2001
Epidemic surveillance
resources of this global campaign – radios, cold
chain, staff and so on – can be leveraged to
improve the whole system. Additional monies
have been given by Sweden, Holland and
Portugal.
WHO’s coordinators are also charged with
working to involving all possible partners
surveillance and response activities, says Dr
Rui. “An NGO working in agriculture might still
be able to help us by transporting stool samples,
or providing a radio link for epidemic
surveillance to an area we otherwise might not
be able to reach.”
New focus in the provinces
After two years with little presence in the
provinces WHO in coordination with the Ministry
of Health has re-established its support to local
health authorities with the opening of seven
epidemiological ‘antennae’.
Key aims of these posts are to be a “catalyst” for
provincial structure, inject new life into epidemic
surveillance
activities,
co-ordinate
polio
eradication activities and boost routine
immunisation to 75 per cent coverage for all
vaccine-preventable diseases by the end of
2001 – an ambitious target in a country where
rates have plummeted to 30-45 per cent in
recent years.
Five antennae – in the provincial capitals of
Uige, Benguela, Lubango and Moxico, plus
Luanda – have been launched so far, and two
more, in Huambo and Cabinda, are due to open
by the end of May. All bar Lubango are staffed
by an international public health doctor.
“We have purposely created these WHO
antennae inside the provincial health delegation
instead of stand-alone offices because the aim
is to help build a team that can continue the
work when our expatriate co-ordinator leaves,“
says Dr Rui Gama Vaz, WHO team chief for the
Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI)
and polio eradication, who has been developing
the project in close collaboration with the
director of national public health Dr Adelaide de
Carvalho. “The antenna is an engine to motivate
local staff to do active surveillance,” he adds.
A network of newly recruited WHO national staff,
one for each of the other provinces, will also be
linked to the antennae, a staff expansion which
it’s hoped will overcome on-going problems with
motivation among local technical staff at field
level.
Antenna staff will track, investigate and facilitate
quick response to six key epidemic diseases –
measles, meningitis, cholera, antenatal tetanus
and yellow fever – as well as coordinating acute
flaccid paralysis surveillance and polio
campaigns.
The offices are funded by the polio campaign
(see page
5) – an example of how the
Emergency response
Floods, displaced and resettlement
Rapid assessment missions are taking place
every week in Angola for different reasons:
some are to newly accessible zones or areas
planned for resettlement, while others are in
response to urgent changing circumstances.
Led by the Ministry of Social Assistance and
Reinsertion (MINARS) and OCHA , the missions
include UN agencies, NGOs and members of
the Government emergency teams. WHO takes
part whenever it has capacity to do so and is
hoping to fund and recruit a further international
staff member to increase its participation.
The Angolan Government and OCHA have
identified some 71 newly accessible areas in
need of assessment this year. More than 20
security and needs assessments had been
carried out by early May
Mission reports are available from OCHA
Angola, ucah@compuserve.com
Maternal health
Study to trace crucial elements of care
In-depth operational research into the care and
services available to women from the time they
become pregnant through delivery and postnatal
care is due to start in the next few months.
Funded and supported by WHO, the research
will be done by the Ministry of Health under the
leadership of Dr Adelaide de Carvalho, director
of national public health. It will provide essential
information on which to base action to reduce
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May 2001
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
what is estimated to be one of the highest rates
of maternal mortality in the world.
“It has been very difficult to get information
about the very high maternal mortality rate. Even
what we have is an estimate since it is based on
information from health institutions when almost
85% of women give birth without an assistance,“
says Ms Dalva Barros, WHO’s national officer
for reproductive health.
“We know it is tied up with destruction of health
infrastructure, movement of people, lack of
appropriate supplies and equipment and the
level and motivation of staff, but what we want to
do is pin down clear areas where we can
intervene and establish clear practical actions.”
It is anticipated the study will also reveal specific
in-service training needs. Currently there is no
formal system of continuing education in Angola
and most of those who attend women prenatally
or in delivery are technicians with no specialist
training.
Huambo, Bengo, Moxico and Malanje are the
sites selected for the research, and preparatory
discussions are currently taking place with the
local authorities. The project will also link with
the Swedish-funded CAOL (Coordenação
Atendimentio Obstetrico de Luanda) project
which is focusing more on institutional services,
and with work being done by UNICEF involving
maternal death audit
“We need to have a system which investigates
each maternal death – particularly in the
community – to find out causes are responsible,”
says Dr Pier Paolo
Balladelli, WHO
representative for Angola. “It means tracing the
management of women, looking for problems
and gaps and then, very importantly, looking for
solutions and implementing them. In individual
units or in the community, immediately changing
some apparently small factors can sometimes
have crucial impact on the big issue – the death
of women in childbirth.”
By way of example Dr Oscar Castillo, medical
co-ordinator for UNICEF says an analysis of 56
maternal deaths in Huila showed the clinical
causes of death to be malaria (50%),
haemorrhage (20%), infection (20%), obstruction
(15%) and toxaemia (15%). But in 65% of these
cases greater use and availability of antenatal
services, more rapid referral to hospital and
better management and treatment once there
could have saved lives. In principle, adds Dr
Castillo, “all maternal deaths are preventable”.
safe delivery methods, referral systems, family
planning and sexual health care.
The agency is focussing at two levels. In IDP
camps, it works with local health authorities and
with partner NGOs to train health workers and
activists to promote activities known to impact
on maternal mortality,. It also provides displaced
women with female ‘hygiene’ kits including soap,
sanitary towels and males and female condoms.
Outside the camps, it and its partners are trying
to strengthen health structures though
rehabilitation, training and provision of drugs and
equipment.
Reproductive health
National plan to guide activities
Running parallel to operational research
described above, the Ministry of Health
supported by WHO is currently discussing with
partners the development of a national plan of
action for reproductive health to guide
interventions from state and non-governmental
organizations over the coming years.
In recent years, co-ordination of activities in the
field have been ad hoc at best. “Having a
national plan will make it easier for the Ministry
of Health to coordinate all the groups who are
currently intervening in reproductive health to
obtain the most effective outcomes for the
country,” says Ms Dalva Barros, adding that
information from NGO partners will be crucial in
preparing the document.
WHO, UNFPA and UNICEF are working with the
Ministry of Health on the plan which they hope
will be finalised by the end of 2001.
Obstetric update reaches out
WHO and the Ministry of Health have carried out
the first of what is hoped will be a series of
updating courses for obstetric technicians and
traditional birth attendants (TBAs) working in
institutions and the community throughout the
country, complementing work also being carried out
by UNFPA.
Funded by WHO, Ministry of Health trainers
have trained maternity nurses working in
Cabinda, Bengo, Kwanza Nord, Kwanza Sud,
Huambo, Moxico, Kunene and Namibe, and
TBAs in Malanje, Kwanza Sul and Cuando
Cubango. WHO has also donated funds to the
School of Midwifery in Luanda and a school in
Huila which is piloting a new approach to
training technicians in health.
Though various international NGOs have been
providing training in maternal and reproductive
health in their particular areas of operation, it is
many years since there has been systematic
updating of obstetric workers, who play a vital
Practical work on minimum package
The United Nations Population Fund is working
to help Ministry of Health facilities develop a
minimum package for reproductive health care
for women, including pre- and post-natal care,
2
May 2001
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
role in a country which has a critical shortage of
medical doctors.
Further training for TBAs is being discussed, but
is dependent on accessing new funds. For its
part UNFPA is particularly concerned to ensure
that TBAs receive good supervision and regular
supplies to enable them to raise their standards
and keep them up.
as the pilot sites to introduce the programme
and are now discussing with local authorities
exactly which health facilities will take part.
However, the programme badly needs further
funding if it is to have a real impact on child
health. It is estimated that some $500,000 is
needed to carrying out training, and a further
$2m to rehabilitate infrastructure and provide
materials and drugs in just five provinces
Addressing the sensitive subject
“It’s not easy to talk about contraception in
situations where treatment for simple conditions
may be limited,” says Dr Julio Leite da Costa,
UNFPA assistant representative. “However in
surveys and when we are distributing kits, we
find an increasing demand for condoms and
other family planning methods.”
UNFPA distributes female hygiene kits in
displaced camps as well as supplying
contraceptives and treatment for sexually
transmitted diseases to health facilities, and
carrying out training in reproductive and sexual
health counselling.
Malaria control
Major donor to Roll Back Malaria
WHO is currently working with the US Agency
for International Development on what is hoped
will be a US$5m donation to fight malaria in
Angola.
The funds, channelled through WHO, will boost
the National Malaria Programme of the Ministry
of Health and used to introduce and implement
the global Roll Back Malaria Initiative which
combines strategies of prevention, education,
access to treatment and environmental control
of the mosquito. Exxon Mobil has also
committed to assist the Ministry of Health in the
programme, which is led in Angola by MoH
national programme director, Dr Filomeno Fortes.
Angola suffers from more than 1 million cases of
malaria a year. It prompts 50% of consultations
and causes 40% of maternal mortality. With
many other African nations last year, Angola
signed up to the Initiative that seeks to reduce
malaria incidence by half by the year 2010.
Several studies are already under way to lay
foundation for the initiative. Research into drug
resistance is about to start in Luanda and Huila
provinces, and an expert team from the WHO
African Regional Office, has been in Angola
recently investigating the use of impregnated
bed nets.
After investigation missions to Huambo, Lobito
and Funda, the team has recommended the
Government investigate the possibility of
removing import tariffs from nets and distributing
free nets to the poor and displaced.
It also urged rapid development of community
treatment centres – a project now being
implemented by UNICEF (see next column) –
and the inclusion of impregnated nets in
emergency non-food item kits. It’s understood
that the Government has committed to buying
200,000 impregnated nets for this purpose.
Child health
New push on childhood diseases
WHO and UNICEF are keen to help the Ministry
of Health get the global programme of Integrated
Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) back
on track in Angola this year.
Though the strategy was officially accepted in
1997, intervening events left it on the back
burner. Now, the drive is on to implement the
programme that focuses on good management
of the five key causes of infant death – malaria,
diarrhoea,
pneumonia,
malnutrition
and
measles. The work, together with efforts to
reduce maternal death, is receiving crucial
backing from Angola’s Vice Minister of Health Dr
José Vieira Dias Van Dúnem.
Guided by Angolan expert Dr Luis Bernardino,
director of Luanda’s Paediatric Hospital, WHO’s
child health officer and a team of five Angolan
paediatricians who attended IMCI training in
Brazil are currently adapting the global
programme to reflect Angolan needs and
develop training materials – work funded by the
Italian Government.
Dr Bernardino says another key partner in the
development work is the CAPEL (Coordenação
Atendimentio Paediatrico de Luanda) group of
units in Luanda, which have been putting into
practice a simplified version of IMCI, thanks to
support initially from the Swedish International
Development Agency and now WHO and
Coorporazione Italiana.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Health has
identified the provinces of Benguela and Huila
First strike against malarial environments
A pilot project based on the principles of the Roll
Back Malaria programme is due to start in Huila
province shortly.
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May 2001
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
Organised by the Ministry of Health and
supported by WHO, the project brings together
elements
of
environmental health
and
prevention. A provincial group is to train health
technicians and community activists to
practically assess the malarial situation of the
as-yet-to-be defined site and then implement
strategies to reduce standing water, control
water sources, improve sanitation and deliver
mosquito nets to an population.
Lessons learned from this project will be applied
in a second pilot in Kwanza Sul with the ultimate
intention of rolling out the work throughout the
country.
donors and people with sexually transmitted
infections.
The first studies are already running. – one
exploring the prevalence and knowledge,
attitudes and practices of 500 TB patients in
Luanda, the other exploring the same factors in
500 pregnant women in Luanda, Benguela and
Huila. Results should be ready next month.
Another study, planned for Viana displacement
camp just outside Luanda, will be particularly
valuable, says new WHO HIV/AIDS project
manager Dr Alberto Stella, because the area
has people from all over the country.
Very little concrete information is available about
the extent of HIV/AIDS in Angola. WHO/UNAIDS
have estimated that just under 44,000 Angolans
are currently HIV positive. But in August 2000,
fewer than 6,300 cases had been reported at
national level and most estimates are
extrapolated from small studies.
Prevalence is thought to be substantially higher in
northern provinces than the southern. Figures from
1999 suggest that prevalence in TB patients in
Cabinda is double that in similar patients in Luanda
(34% versus 19%) and three times higher in
pregnant women (8% versus 3.4%).
“The most important thing at the moment is to
strengthen national surveillance and understand
behaviour. It is vital that we know what is really
happening with HIV/AIDS in this country. Only
then can we start to develop the programmes to
control the disease,” says Dr Stella.
The aim is to get HIV/AIDS data into the national
information system so that data can guide the
selection of new strategies and interventions to
combat the epidemic can be monitored. Other
activities include developing national guidelines
on HIV surveillance, improving clinical
management and setting up a voluntary
counselling and testing centres (see below).
WHO and the Ministry of Health hope also to
secure
links
with
other
health-related
organizations.
Centres expand net of prevention
UNICEF’s
project
for
community-based
mosquito net impregnation centres has reached
four provinces. Three centres are now open in
Luanda, six in Benguela, two in Uige and one in
Bengo. The centres impregnate new nets with
insecticide and sell them at a very reduced price
($2-3), and provide training and materials for
‘dip-it-yourself’ treatment.
Dr Oscar Castillo says the demand for
impregnated
nets
has
far
surpassed
expectations “even in Uige where people are
very poor”. Some 7000 nets were distributed in
the first month of centre operations.
But he cautions that nets have a good market
value and a second stage of the project includes
the development of malaria education centres
and health activist who can visit and evaluate
the use of the nets.
HIV/AIDS
Study seeks clarity on HIV rate
A US$500,000 project to provide baseline data
critical to guide the fight against HIV/AIDS in
Angola began last month and will produce its
first results in June.
Funded by the Italian Government, the study is
part of 18-month Angolan Initiative for the Fight
Against AIDS in Africa and is a collaboration
between the Angolan National Institute of Public
Health, provincial health authorities and WHO. It
involves developing health system capacity to
collect and analyse information on HIV
prevalence
and
population
behaviour,
operational research, the introduction of
voluntary testing
and
counselling,
and
strengthening laboratory testing.
Six sentinel sites, five in the provinces (Cabinda,
Moxico, Lunda Sul, Lubango, Benguela and
Malanje) and one in Luanda, have been set up
and staff are being trained in cross-sectional and
behavioural research in four important indicative
groups: TB patients, pregnant women, blood
Testing and counselling is first step
Developing the capacity to treatment of sexually
transmitted infections will be a key entry point for
HIV detection and counselling and is another
element of the WHO/Cooperazione Italiana
AIDS initiative, according to project manager Dr
Alberto Stella.
“The rate of syphilis and gonorrhoea in normal
Angolan is frightening. But the national health
service needs to be strengthened to treat these
conditions, when they are diagnosed. Improving
capacity to test, diagnose and manage STIs will
also allow us to strengthen diagnostic services
for HIV/AIDS.”
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May 2001
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
Priority activities planned over the next year are
translating guidelines manuals for STI and
voluntary testing and counselling services,
training in clinical management, creating
laboratory capacity and carry out research into
the feasibility of a programme against mother to
child transmission. A pilot voluntary testing and
counselling service is currently being set up in a
TB clinic in Luanda which treats over 20% of the
capital’s TB patients, and a second has been
opened by international NGO Goal.
WHO also hopes to work with the Angolan
Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS to
find ways of linking testing and counselling to
existing antenatal, TB and STI clinics.
NIDs synchronise to find hidden infants
Logistics, cold chain and social marketing teams
are also moving into high gear to prepare for this
national immunisation days (NIDs) which, it is
hoped, will be coordinated across a whole
swathe of Central Africa including Gabon,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of
Congo and Angola. Cross border vaccination is
also being discussed with Zambia and Namibia.
For Angola, synchronisation raises the hope that
at least some children in inaccessible border
areas might be able to receive vaccine from
cross border teams if no other way is possible.
Though His Excellency President Dos Santos
recently committed himself to the principle of
polio vaccine for all children under five wherever
they live in Angola, finding the way to put this
desire in action is more difficult
The Ministry has real concerns about the areas
which cannot at present be accessed either for
vaccination or AFP surveillance, since without
information from these areas, it will not be
possible to certify Angola polio-free.
In 1999 Angola suffered a massive polio
outbreak with 1117 cases and 113 deaths. Last
year, there were 55 cases, but so far in 2001
there have been no confirmed cases though at
the time of writing 14 are still under
investigation.
Polio eradication
Team plans to map every child
By the end of June, the location of every house,
tent or shack containing a child under five in the
accessible areas of Angola, should be on a map,
somewhere, somehow. This is the goal of joint
Ministry of Health, WHO and UNICEF polio
eradication team who believe ‘micro-planning’
will lift the number of children vaccinated in this
year’s national immunisation days to as close to
100 per cent of those reachable as possible.
Last year, 4 million under-fives – just over 80 per
cent of those living in Government-controlled
areas – got their pink drops in three rounds of
immunisation days. But this left almost a million
unvaccinated children to add to the 2 million left
out because they lived in inaccessible
municipalities inaccessible.
If you don’t have good enough micro-planning,
everything else falls down,” notes Dr Rui Gama
Vaz, WHO polio team leader. This year the
Ministry of Health and WHO want to have a
really good quality, house to house intervention.
To do this the number of people dedicated to
polio has already expanded by 100 people
whose task is to map at municipal level, as well
as investigate any report of the acute flaccid
paralysis that can be a marker of a polio case. A
further 100 being recruited.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative in Angola
is coordinated by the Ministry of Health under
the leadership of Dr Fátima Valente, director for
the Expanded Programme of Immunization, and
supported by the campaign’s long-term partners,
Rotary International, USAID, the US Centers for
Disease Control and CORE, plus new partners
including the UK Department for International
Development (DfID), the Netherlands and
several private companies.
STOP teams are go
Two, two-person volunteer ‘STOP’ teams (Stop
Transmission of Polio) will arrive this month from
the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention to support the Ministry of Health in
mission to improve acute flaccid paralysis
surveillance and help with in preparations for
July’s national immunisation days.
Tuberculosis
How to get DOTS back on track?
The Ministry of Health, supported by WHO, is
this year trying to rejuvenate a TB programme
that has been fighting a losing battle over recent
years due to an environment that is almost the
completely opposite of conditions needed for
effective treatment.
TB is the second most important cause of
mortality in Angola. Over 15,000 cases were
reported in 1999, a figure thought to be well
surpassed in 2001, but at present treatment is
available for around 1500 patients. DOTS (Directly
Observed Treatment Short-course) was introduced
in 1998 but is achieving cure rates of less than 40
per cent where it has been implemented.
“It is very hard to imagine that many of the
centres which should, and would like, to
implement DOTS have been able to do it until
5
May 2001
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
now because of the difficulty of following
Health information
patients and maintaining good supplies of
drugs,” says WHO officer Dr Sebastian Nkunku.
While population movement is one challenge,
maintaining free drug supply is another major
problem to be overcome. In Cuito Hospital, the
sanatorium manager says patients receive free
drugs, but low supplies leave dozens waiting for
treatment. Lack of streptomycin this month, he
adds, has prevented between 15 and 25
children from starting treatment.
Database clears blockage
A new database holds the promise of better
health information for all partners in health in
future. Working with the National Institute of
Public Health, WHO staff are gradually putting in
place a new information system that it’s hoped
will streamline not only collection but also
feedback to the units which provide the data.
In 2000, over half Angola’s municipalities filed
information and it is hoped that, with widespread
training and the increasing ability to provide
quick feedback on data to provincial level, this
will improve further, says WHO epidemiologist
Dr Etelvina Correia, “With the new database we
will be able to analyse the information much
more quickly and respond to problems.”
Part of the new approach is a monthly health
bulletin and a system of radio-based reporting
for epidemic disease. The project is currently
funded by WHO Angola from emergency
donations.
Trypanosomiasis
Active campaign needed to stop epidemic
In the early 70’s, like most of the affected
countries of Africa, Angola had almost
completely controlled sleeping sickness. In 1973
only 3 cases were reported. Now, says
Professor Teófilo Josenando, director of the
Ministry of Health’s Institute for the Combat and
Control of Trypanosomiasis, more than 25% of
the population is at risk of the disease and
between 80,000 and 120,000 currently have it.
Among the key reasons for this is the break
down to the active surveillance and investigation
systems due to the turmoil of war, mass
population displacement and the inability of
health workers to access large numbers of the
rural population.
The Institute, together with WHO, is working hard
to re-instate systems of active surveillance and
investigation in affected areas, says Prof.
Josenando.
Projects are particularly focused on setting up
the systematic screening systems crucial to
catching people while they are still in the first
phase of the disease, establishing mobile
laboratory and treatment clinics, and trying to
discover shorter-term, more effective ways to
use the heavy-duty second phase drugs. In this
last area, Angola with WHO support is taking
part in a seven-country research project.
“It’s very important to implement programmes
that are tailored to local conditions and staff,”
says
WHO’s
officer
responsible
for
trypanosomiasis, Dr Sebastian Nkunku. “At the
moment in Angola, we have many more people
who have reached the second phase of sleeping
sickness which is much more grave. The only
drugs for the second phase are very strong and
can cause complications. If we can re-establish
an active campaign which can reach the people,
test them for the disease early, and start
treatment, it will make a big difference.”
Environmental Health
School latrines are first step to health
“It’s hard to train children and teachers about
hygienic environments if they don’t have the
basics facilities to put your advice into practice,”
says Inga Gabriela Guerra, WHO’s national
officer for water and sanitation. Hence WHO’s
project to build latrines and water reservoirs for
eight schools in the Luanda province.
Twenty latrines in five schools have already
been built in the US$40,000 project which is a
small part of the Initiative Africa 2000 which
focuses on environmental health. WHO is also
supporting the Ministries of Health and of
Energy and Water to establish latrine-building
groups initially in Namibe, Kwanza Sul and
Kwanza Nord.
Under the initiative, week-long technical
seminars were held last year in 14 of Angola’s
18 provinces, covering subjects such as
protection of water sources and catchment
areas, good treatment practice, preventing
water-related disease, environmental hygiene
and even how to build effective latrines. The
remainder planned for this year.
Emergency chlorine distributed
Fifty kilogramme barrels of chlorine went out to
all Luanda’s municipalities this month to
counteract poor water quality caused by floods
and unscrupulous water sellers.
Supplied by UNICEF, the chemical was
distributed by WHO which also supported the
Ministry of Health in training health workers to
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May 2001
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
prepare solutions for the public consumption,
after a study showed quality of water in Luanda
was decreasing. WHO also produced posters to
This document was researched and written by Hilary Bower, information officer for WHO Emergency and Humanitarian Action
Department, Geneva, The content does not necessarily reflect official WHO policy. For further information, please email
bowerh@who.int or hbower26@hotmail.com or WHO Angola on the above contact addresses.
encourage families to treat their drinking water.
“At the moment it is safer only to drink water that
you have disinfected yourself,” says Ing a
Gabriela Guerra, “Though we hope this will
improve as the rains disappear.”
Contact WHO in Angola
Spotlight falls in clinical waste
WHO Luanda
Ph:
+244 2 33 23 98
Sat ph: +1 321 956 3752
Fx:
+244 2 33 23 14
Sat fx: +1 321 956 3882
Email:whoang@ebonet.net
Information on exactly what processes are being
used – or not used – to dispose of clinical waster
in Luanda’s health facilities should be available
by the end of June.
Part of a $10,000 project to improve the capital’s
clinical waste management, the data will come
from questionnaires completed by Ministry of
Health technical investigators who are currently
being trained to administer the survey. The
information will then be used by the ministries
involved to draw up a plan of action.
WHO Representative
Dr Pier Paolo Balladelli
Administration
Mr Michel Kouakou
EPI and Polio Eradication
Dr Rui Gama Vaz, ,
Poverty alleviation
Emergency and Humanitarian Action
Dr Domingos Nsala
Focus on health in new strategy
Health is a key element in the reduction of
poverty according to the Government of Angola
proposals for the Interim Poverty Reduction
Strategy proposal to be presented to the Bretton
Woods Institutions.
In its first draft, priorities such as the reduction of
infant and maternal mortality, prevention of
HIV/AIDS and control of communicable diseases
such as tuberculosis and leprosy were strongly
represented, and indeed health goals took up
half of the documents proposal section.
The UN team including WHO, UNICEF and
UNFPA has supported the Government’s
emphasis on the social sectors, particularly with
regard to HIV/AIDS saying there is a synergistic
relationship between conflict, poverty and the
disease.
”Mounting an effective national response to
HIV/AIDS clearly must be a centre part of the
poverty reduction strategy from the interim
phase onwards,” noted the agencies in a
memorandum presented to the Government on
May 2.
The Ministry of Planning is organising a seminar
at the end of June with the assistance of the
World Bank, the International Monetary Fund
and the United Nations to conduct consultations
on the social sector strategies outlined in the
Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.
Disease Prevention and Control
Dr Nkunku Sebastião
Maternal and Child Health, Reproductive
Health and Human Resources Development
Ms Dalva Barros
Water and Sanitation
Inga Gabriela Guerra
Health surveillance
Dr Etelvina Correia
Information officer
Mr José Caetano
Epidemiological Antenna Coordinators
Luanda:
Dr Nasir Yusuf
Benguela:
Dr Maria Fernanda Alvim
Sardella
Huila:
Dr Lemos Bernabé
Uige:
Dr Maria Aparecida Da Silva
Moxico:
Dr Jaime Quinteros
7
May 2001