Minister of health of Suriname describes health situation

Washington, February 26, 2001 (PAHO) - The Minister of Health of Suriname, Dr. Mohamed Rakieb Khudabux, said today that the government of his country gives high priority to the sustained improvement of the health sector, with emphasis on multisectoral cooperation and community participation.

In a presentation at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Khudabux said, "Health sector reform is going to be necessary" to improve the general level of health of the population and meet the health priorities that Suriname has set.

According to Dr. Khudabux, the main problem of the health sector in Suriname lies in its finances, making necessary a redesign of the health sector's budget to allocate more resources to primary care and prevention and to improve training for its professionals.

The policy, the structure of the sector, and staff training will be adjusted so that primary care can be really the basis of health for all, said the minister, who added that the priority groups are children, the women and the elderly.

A loan from the Inter-American Development Bank made possible the development of four studies-five more are projected--, on the financing of the health sector, investment of the population in health, and the health insurance situation, among others. The results of these studies will be applied in the process of sector reform, Dr. Khudabux said.

The minister mentioned cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus among the leading causes of death in the country, and said public health officials will increase care for noncommunicable diseases. The increase of mortality because of AIDS, due both to rising prevalence and to a better reporting system also constitutes a troubling factor, he said.

The population of Suriname in 1999 was about 420,000 inhabitants, 70 percent of which live in the two urban districts, Paramaribo and Wanica District, that only represent 0.4 percent of the land surface of the country, explained Dr. Khudabux. This creates one of the principal problems in health care, since the rest of the regions have a population of 0.2 inhabitants per square kilometer, which hinders notably the continuous delivery of medical services.

In relation to these problems, among the main projects for the 5-year period 2001-2005 will be public health services, efforts to control malaria, leptospirosis, AIDS, and tuberculosis. At the same time, hospital care will be evaluated with an eye to improving efficiency, he explained.

The provision of a basic health package for every inhabitant, improvements in health education, the promotion of a healthy lifestyle and the development of perinatal care, maternal and child health, and adolescent health are among the priorities of the plan of governmental action, he said.

Dr. Khudabux noted the long relationship between Suriname and PAHO and expressed his desire to continue this fruitful collaboration. "There are several areas in which we can work together and where we have had successful collaboration," he said, and there are other areas where improvements and greater cooperation are needed, concluded the minister.

The Pan American Health Organization, founded in 1902, serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization, and works with all the countries of the Americas to improve the health and raise the standards from life of its peoples.