08/28/2018
Press Bulletin No. 107, 2018
- Malaria, low birth weight, new Sivigila, and transplants were some issues addressed by Minister Juan Pablo Uribe
Bogotá (DC), August 28, 2018. Keeping one of his commitments concerning the strengthening of public health in the country, the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Juan Pablo Uribe, visited the National Institute of Health to relay Colombia's challenges in the matter.
Minister Uribe commended INS's technical, detail-oriented and valuable work, under the leadership of Director Martha Lucía Ospina, and urged addressing seven vital aspects.
"President Duque feels that there must be more investment in health to reach the triple goal of improving the health conditions of the Colombian population, with better quality and being financially responsible. This Institute is a strength–and I want to be part of it, working to maintain it," he said.
He added that the country's public health should have greater capacity to intervene in social determinants to regain control over the burden of disease. "The system needs balance and stability, and here in the Institute we see many important roles to be fulfilled."
The Minister said that the administrative structure of the INS should be examined; a strong national malaria program should be promoted; the launch of the new epidemiological surveillance system (Sivigila), planned for 2019, should be supported; a task force to make qualification more rational should be installed; and the reasons for low birth weight should be studied.
Other work fronts he emphasized were related to assessing and cross-referencing the analysis of transplants–especially liver–in terms of survival, in addition to making the National Health Observatory more research-oriented.
He also indicated that he will be expecting proposals to strengthen the mission aspect of the INS and which would be taken into account within the National Development Plan.
For her part, Director Martha Lucía Ospina raised the issue of institutional challenges, among which are the projects for the production of food that would tackle malnutrition; and solutions for the care of pathologies such as leishmaniasis and toxoplasmosis. Similarly, she expressed her intention to achieve, in the medium term, the production of saline solution with the possibility of selling it in Latin America.
