Pregnant women in Sierra Leone to get free healthcare
19/02/2010
The president of Sierra Leone Ernest Koroma has announced a new scheme to reduce the number of infant mortalities by offering free healthcare to pregnant women.
Revealing the initiative on public radio on Monday (15 February), the premier said that all medical fees for pregnant or lactating mothers, as well as their children under five years old, will be cut.
"We are determined to bring down the deplorable figures of deaths among pregnant women and children and reverse the trend which is not good for the country's image," Koroma told AFP.
He suggested that the mortality rates, which have been identified as the highest of any country by the World Health Organisation, are linked to citizens in the north of Sierra Leone holding on to traditional births and delivery practices.
The HIV rate among teenagers in fellow African nation Zimbabwe was also noted as particularly high by a recent report published in PLoS Medicine.
