22 Jun 2015

Minister of Health, Ms Dorcas Makgatho has urged Letlhakane residents to take responsibility of their health.

Ms Makgatho said during a kgotla meeting held in Letlhakane recently, that there was a rapid increase of non-communicable diseases amongst Batswana.

She noted that a lot of Batswana had lost lives due to non-communicable diseases as a result of adapted lifestyles such as poor diet and lack of exercise.

Therefore, she said it was critical to prevent than to cure, noting that if prevention could be upheld many lives would be saved and regular visits to medical facilities would be reduced.

Consequently, she said it was essential for an individual to take responsibility of his/her health by embarking on different methods of preventing non-communicable diseases such as upholding body fitness.

Minister Ms Makgatho further stated that HIV/AIDS remains a challenge in Botswana.

She stated that Batswana were no longer scared of contracting HIV/AIDS since government had availed Anti-Retro-Virals and Prevention from Mother To Child Transmission programmes (PMTCT) for free.

She indicated that 94 per cent of patients on ARV programme were adhering to their medication. However, she expressed concern that there was a low uptake of condom use and male circumcision programme.

Botswana, she said was progressing well in preventing the spread of HIV from mother to child, stating that the global world has set itself a target of five per cent while Botswana had set itself a target of 1.3 per cent.

Ms Makgatho noted that tuberculosis was also a challenge as it was still prevalent, citing high prevalence in Letlhakane. In addition, she pointed out that the ministry’s aim was to achieve zero losses with regard to child mortality.

In an endeavour to achieve the objective, she said government had introduced new immunisation programmes such as cervical cancer and measles immunisation which goes up to 18 months.

She highlighted that under five child mortality rate had reduced from 76 in 1000 children in 2008 to 28 in 1000 children to current date.

With regard to maternal death, Ms Ms Makgatho noted that in 2008 there were 189 maternal deaths in hundred thousand and current statistics reveal that maternal death rate stood at 134 in hundred thousand.

Government, she noted had introduced a programme whereby expectant mothers staying in remote areas would be admitted in hospitals two weeks before delivery date to prevent loss of either the mother or the child.

She further acknowledged that construction of a new hospital in Letlhakane that could meet demand, required urgent attention.

However, she said it could not be realised in the year 2015 due to financial strain. She promised the residents that the ministry would devise measures that could be implemented to fast-track realisation of the project.

Earlier on, Village Development Committee chairperson had expressed concern with regard to Letlhakane hospital capacity saying it was incapacitated to meet the village demand.

He complained that the village population was increasing at a rapid rate due to mines mushrooming on its surroundings. Also, the VDC chairperson also complained about lack of accommodation for hospital staff and shortage of medication. Ends