WB loans to help fight non-communicable diseases
March 30, 2013 01:00 am
The World Bank (WB) has approved a concessionary loan of 200 million U.S. dollars to Sri Lanka to help the government provide health services to mitigate escalating non-communicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cancer, a statement said on Friday.
The project is expected to benefit the whole population of 21 million people of the country, especially the poorer and more vulnerable population groups who depend more on public health services.
Those who will benefit directly from this project are those vulnerable to under-nutrition, maternal and childcare problems.
The funding will also cover people suffering from a range of ailments including tuberculosis, dengue, leptospirosis, HIV/AIDS as well as persons with acute and chronic non-communicable diseases like injuries, heart diseases, strokes, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cancers and mental disorders.
“The current health system needs improvements to deal effectively with emerging health problems of a middle-income country such as ours,” WB Senior Health Specialist Kumari Vinodhani Navaratne was quoted as saying in the statement.
The WB estimates that during the past half-century, the proportion of deaths due to cardiovascular diseases has increased from 3 percent to 24 percent while that due to infectious diseases has decreased from 42 percent to 20 percent, Xinhua reported.
