President Bush visits ACCESS-supported hospital in Tanzania
08 March 2008
During his recent trip to Africa, President Bush toured Meru District Hospital in Tanzania—where ACCESS has trained more than 2,400 health workers—to discuss the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) and the country's fight against malaria.
“In 2005, I announced that the United States would work to save lives through our Malaria Initiative. Under this five-year, $1.2 billion program, we’re working with 15 African countries to cut malaria-related deaths by half,” Bush said after the tour.
PMI has provided $1.8 million to the ACCESS Program to work with the National Malaria Control Programme and the Reproductive and Child Health Service in developing guidelines and training materials, and training health workers.
Referring to these ACCESS-trained health workers, Bush said: “The initiative supports treatment for those who are most vulnerable to malaria, especially pregnant women. Here in Tanzania… health workers have been trained to provide specialized treatment that prevents malaria in expectant mothers.”
These newly trained health workers account for about 41% of the antenatal care work force—or 1,199 (25%) of health facilities having a health worker providing intermittent preventive treatment of malaria during pregnancy (IPTp). IPTp is an easy and economic approach to preventing malaria in the estimated 1.7 million pregnant women who contract the disease each year in Tanzania.
The ACCESS Program works with the Government of Tanzania to reduce maternal and newborn deaths and to improve the health of mothers and newborns. The program’s goal is to prevent/treat malaria in pregnancy through strengthening antenatal care services at all health facilities in the country and improving uptake of IPTp.
About ACCESS
The ACCESS Program is the U.S. Agency for International Development’s
global program to improve maternal and newborn health. The ACCESS Program works to expand
coverage, access and use of key maternal and newborn health services across a continuum
of care from the household to the hospital—with the aim of making quality health services
accessible for women and newborns.
Jhpiego implements the program in partnership with Save the
Children, Constella Futures, the Academy for Educational Development, the American
College of Nurse-Midwives and IMA World Health.
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