Ethiopia said Thursday it has made utmost efforts to expand health service coverage over the past 14 years.

Various strategic policies on the health sector have been implemented to enhance the development of the health sector after the downfall of the Derg regime in 1991, said Getachew Assefa, public relations officer with the Ministry of Health.

Getachew said activities carried out to increase the numbers of health experts and institutes have significantly increased the health service coverage in the country.

He said the number of hospitals in the country has increased to 131 from 72 some 14 years ago, while that of health posts has increased to 600 from 153.

Similarly, he said, the number of health stations, which had been limited to 223, has surpassed 4,200.

In 1991, there was only one pharmaceutical factory in the country, Getachew said, adding that the number of pharmaceutical factories had reached 14, thus boosting the medicine supply service coverage in the country to 40 percent.

He said medicinal supply service coverage in the country would increase to 60 percent when pharmaceutical factories under construction become fully operational.

Getachew said the number of medicine supplier companies has increased to 75 from the previous 16.

He said the annual health budget of the country has remarkably increased from 48.9 million birr (5.63 million U.S. dollars) in 1991 to 517.81 million birr (59.6 million dollars) in 2005.

He said a detailed plan has been prepared and implementation process is underway to increase the health service coverage of the country to 100 percent in the coming five years.

Source: Xinhua