Algeria to embark on health infrastructure development
afrol News, 12 February - Algeria has announced €20 billion investment plan to revamp the old and decaying hospitals and to mordermise its health infrastructure between 2009 and 2025.
The official at the Ministry of Health, Slim Belkessam said management of health sector has decided to set aside €20 billion for the construction of new health facilities to reduce congestion in the public health centres and to modernise the existing hospitals.
The official said the health scheme will build new hospitals, new anti-cancer centres, and maternity homes, close old hospitals and provide better coverage throughout the country.
The programme, which is funded by the State, aims to double in 2025, the rate of beds per population which currently stands at 1.7 per 1,000. The plan also include 88 new hospitals and 758 new sanitary projects.
According to the official, Algeria wants to be prepared to cope with the increase in non communicable diseases such as cancer which 30,000 new cases are reported every year, hypertension or heart disease, which have become dominant and claiming many lives in the country.
Non communicable diseases now represent 70 percent of causes of death against 20 percent twenty years ago according to national statistics.
In 2005, Algeria launched a five-year programme of public investment of €3 billion for the construction of new health infrastructure.
afrol News - It is called "financial inclusion", and it is a key government policy in Rwanda. The goal is that, by 2020, 90 percent of the population is to have and actively use bank accounts. And in only four years, financial inclusion has doubled in Rwanda.
afrol News - The UN's humanitarian agencies now warn about a devastating famine in Sudan and especially in South Sudan, where the situation is said to be "imploding". Relief officials are appealing to donors to urgently fund life-saving activities in the two countries.
afrol News - Fear is spreading all over West Africa after the health ministry in Guinea confirmed the first Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa. According to official numbers, at least 86 are infected and 59 are dead as a result of this very contagious disease.
afrol News - It is already a crime being homosexual in Ethiopia, but parliament is now making sure the anti-gay laws will be applied in practical life. No pardoning of gays will be allowed in future, but activist fear this only is a signal of further repression being prepared.
afrol News / Africa Renewal - Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries.