Health Issues
Clean Drinking Water
In March 2008, the Republic of Congo launched an initiative with the International Committee of the Red Cross to rehabilitate the water supply system in the town of Kinkala in the southeast of the Republic of Congo. The new system aims to provide clean drinking water to an estimated 10,000 residents of the area, whose infrastructure was damaged during the civil war between 1998 and 2003. “The water treatment facility will improve the living conditions of citizens and prevent diseases and epidemics related to the lack of clean drinking water,” said Yoka Onika, general manager of the Société Nationale de Distribution d'Eau.
Stepping Up the Fight Against Malaria
The Republic of Congo increased its efforts to protect women and children from malaria. The campaign launched in June 2008 provides impregnated bed nets or for the bed nets to be re-impregnated. In October 2007, Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso announced that antimalarial treatment would be provided free of charge for children up to the age of five and for pregnant women.
HIV and AIDS
Congolese First Lady Antoinette Sassou-Nguesso last fall launched a national anti-AIDS campaign, with the theme: “Save the child to be born.” The first lady is partnering with several organizations to reach as many people as possible in an effort to increase the numbers of people who get tested for HIV.
Since January 2007, AIDS treatment has been offered free in Congo-Brazzaville. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS estimates adult HIV prevalence in Congo at 5.3 percent.
The Centre for Mobile Treatment in Brazzaville features a service dealing with mother-to-child HIV transmission. It has also begun work on constructing a building to house maternity services for pregnant, HIV positive women, with financing from the French Red Cross.
Reducing Hunger and Meeting Key Millennium Development Goals
An October 2007 NGO report on global hunger states that Congo is one of only six of 42 African countries on track to meet three critical UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The goal is to cut hunger and child malnutrition in half and reducing child mortality by two-thirds over the next eight years. Congo has been able to near these goals through increased education, health care and food production and availability.
