The New Vision
By: Conan Businge
THE rapid population growth is suffocating the health budget, the 2007 Uganda Human Development Report has said.
The report showed that the population doubles every 20 years.
It said in 1948 the population was five million and by 1969, it was 9.5 million.
Currently, the population is about 30 million.
The assistant commissioner for planning, Dr. John Bagambisa, said the sector was overburdened and under-funded.
“The population growth is much higher than the resources available,” he said.
“Under the circumstances, the country cannot achieve the Millennium
Development Goals of reducing child and maternal mortality by 2015,” an
official from the health ministry said.
According to health workers, as long as women do not seek treatment
from them, coupled with high fertility rate, increased teenage
pregnancies and low contraceptive use, more women will continue to die
in childbirth.
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