Prague, July 18 (CTK) – The strategy of fighting HIV infection, which has been considerably rising in the Czech Republic, and a reaction to this year’s high occurrence of tick are the priorities of the country’s new chief sanitary officer Eva Gottvaldova, she told journalists yesterday.
Furthermore, Gottvaldova will continue with the Health 2020 programme focusing on the Sanitary Office’s tasks related to the population’s health.
“I want to carry on with all the goods things that have been achieved by the Sanitary Office so far,” she said when taking over the post from her predecessor Vladimir Valenta.
She wants the state to appropriately react to new challenges such as the rising occurrence of HIV and this year’s record number of cases of tick-borne diseases.
The number of HIV cases has been mainly rising among men who have sex with men, since the new, more efficient medicines have prolonged HIV patients’ years of survival, which makes them unafraid of HIV, Gottvaldova said.
Valenta said the Sanitary Office’s annual budget is 1.4 billion crowns, which is almost 500 million less than before the time of big budget cuts in 2006-2012.
This financial gap should be filled soon to bring the office’s budget to the pre-2006 level, Valenta said.
Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek (Social Democrats, CSSD) thanked Valenta for having stabilised the Sanitary Office and coped well with big challenges such as the threats of MERS, Ebola and Zika infections, and successfully defended the preservation of the compulsory vaccination of children.
Valenta recalled that the Sanitary Office dealt with cases of methanol poisoning within the affair involving lethal bootleg spirits on the Czech market.
It has also defeated its opponents who wanted to strip it of its power to inspect catering facilities, Valenta said.
Valenta headed the Sanitary Office from October 2012.
Gottvaldova succeeded in a recent competition for the post and the government approved her nomination on July 15.
($1=24.284 crowns)
