ABIDJAN – Dr Mamadou Diallo, Regiobal Director, West Africa, UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said the sub-region had not invested adequately to provide efficient health sector for its people.
Diallo said this in a statement issued on Tuesday after his meeting with Prime Minister of Mali, Moussa Mara, in Bamako.
“It is regrettable that the countries of the West African region have not invested sufficiently in basic social services, particularly in the health sector.
“Investing in the health sector will prepare the region for any eventual disease outbreak; we all are witnesses to the effects of the Ebola virus,’’ he said in the statement obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Dialo therefore called on governments in the sub-region to shore-up their investments in the health sector “in the interest of the citizenry whose health remains crucial for national productivity”.
“It is in our interests to renew commitments towards developing facilities that support disease prevention and control.
“The effects of HIV/AIDS and Ebola should be a wake-up call to all of us; we should give the health sector a priority,’’ he said. (NAN)