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Malawi to get $70m health boost
19/07/2007 15:23 - (SA)
Blantyre - Former United States president Bill Clinton will on Friday launch a multi-million dollar hospital project in impoverished Malawi, where health care is dogged by poor facilities and a brain drain.
Local government minister George Chaponda said: "Former president Clinton will perform a ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the modern hospital, which will cost $70m."
The minister said the Clinton/Hunter Initiative for Development would bankroll the construction of the 80-bed hospital and 23 staff houses at Neno district, 120km south of the commercial capital, Blantyre.
Chaponda added that Clinton was also expected to hold private talks with President Bingu wa Mutharika at the hilltop Sanjika Palace in Blantyre, during his one-day visit.
Nurses migrate to Britain, US
Malawi, where 60% of the 12 million citizens lived below the poverty line of less than a $1 a day, faced an acute lack of health workers with about 120 registered nurses migrating to Britain and the US every year in search of better salaries.
According to a recent survey by the health ministry, one nurse served 50 patients in most hospital wards, and the doctor-patient ratio was 64 000 to one.
Malawi's mortality rate, currently at 984 per 100 000 live births, was the third highest in the world, after conflict-plagued Sierra Leone and Afghanistan.
One of Africa's poorest countries, Malawi, was also battling HIV/Aids, which had affected about 14% of the population. There were about 80 000 Aids-related deaths every year.
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