USAID/Timor-Leste's
Improved Health Program
USAID seeks to improve the health of Timor-Leste's people, especially
women and children at greatest risk. As the poorest country
in Southeast Asia, Timor-Leste faces many significant health
challenges. Rates of maternal, infant, and child mortality are
among the highest in the world. Infectious diseases such as
malaria, tuberculosis, and dengue are also highly prevalent.
Controlling these diseases is made more difficult by a weak
health care network and low capacity among health service providers.
USAID is providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Health
to strengthen and extend effective child health interventions
throughout Timor-Leste in order to decrease infant and child
mortality rates and reduce the impact of priority infectious
diseases.
USAID's program places responsibility for health care within
the community first to encourage increasing use of appropriate
health care services and family health practices. A network
of community institutions, supported by USAID, helps ensure
long-term accessibility to positive health promotion activities.
Improving Maternal and Child
Health
USAID is working to improve the health care given to women and
children, while promoting healthy behavior in the communities.
Key best practices promoted include exclusive breastfeeding,
timely and adequate complementary feeding, immunization, hand-washing,
pre- and post-natal care for women, delivery by skilled birth
attendants, newborn care, and appropriate care-seeking behavior.
Control of Priority Infectious
Diseases
USAID is strengthening malaria control by distributing long-lasting,
insecticide-treated bed-nets for all children under five and
pregnant women and improving detection and treatment of the
disease. Technical assistance on diagnosis and drug efficacy
is coordinated in partnership with the U.S. Naval Medical Research
Unit (NAMRU2), based in Jakarta, which also plans to establish
a satellite infectious diseases laboratory in Timor-Leste. This
lab will also strengthen local capacity to conduct epidemiological
surveillance for infectious diseases, including avian influenza
in humans. During the humanitarian crisis that broke out in
April 2006, USAID supported the distribution of long-lasting
insecticide treated nets and training for health volunteers
to deliver key health promotion messages in camps for internally
displaced persons.
While Timor-Timor-Leste has been fortunate to have avoided Avian
Influenza to date, it borders the country with the most human
cases detected and which poses the greatest number of challenges
from the standpoint of surveillance, Indonesia. USAID, through
the Food and Agriculture Organization, is supporting the Ministry
of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, to initiate communication
and public awareness activities for the prevention
and control of Avian influenza in the country.
Nutrition:
USAID addresses chronic malnutrition in Timor-Leste, both through
rapid intervention measures being implemented by CARE and by
providing food aid through the World Food Program. USAID’s
health program emphasizes nutrition and encourages the use of
state-of-the-art nutritional interventions such as vitamin A
(to bolster the immune system) and zinc (to reduce deaths from
diarrhea by as much as 51 percent).
HIV/AIDS Prevention
After successfully establishing the first national HIV/AIDS
program in Timor-Leste, in partnership with Family Health International,
USAID assistance led to the approval of a $9 million, five-year
grant for HIV/AIDS prevention and control by the Global Fund
to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
USAID's Health Partners
To help achieve improved health for Timor-Leste's people, USAID
works with several organizations, including Timor-Leste Asisténcia
Integradu Saúde (TAIS, a partnership of BASICS and Immunization
BASICS), CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Health Alliance International,
NAMRU2, and DAI.
