Reaching rural communities with medical services in South Sudan (© Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin/ ICRC)

Officials from the Ministry of Health say decades of civil war that resulted in economic decay, poor infrastructure, population displacement and disruption of social services have left the country to be the worst in terms of health.

According to the International Conference on Population and Development report, South Sudan health situation is one of the worst in the world.

It attributes the situation to poor access to health services, limited number of health workers and lack of access to health services.

To combat this problems, the ministry, in collaboration with partners, has prepared a National Action Plan aimed at building a health system.

The plan addresses 16 health issues in the country, including all epidemic diseases, immunizations, maternal mortality rate and mechanism of prevention and preparedness for Ebola outbreak.

Dr. Thuou Loi is the Director-General at the Ministry of health.

“We have all sorts of epidemic diseases and now with Ebola across the border in DRC and in Uganda we have issues of concern. We have reason to worry about the health of the people of South Sudan and this is why we are working together with WHO on top of the list to build our capacity as a country to be able to effectively build the health system.”

For his part, the World Health Organization officer in-charge, Aragta Gurcha, said the National Action Plan will help improve the situation.

“This is a National Action Plan for Health Security it is in line with International regulation 2005, where all the countries are signatory to. This plan is aiming at, or looking at co-capacities for prevention, preparedness and response to all hazard health problems.”

The five-year plan was launched yesterday.