Tanzania sees domestic investment as a key to health research strategies

NAIROBI: TANZANIA has continued to demonstrate it’s commitment to strengthening the health sector by investing in research, digital health systems, control of infectious and non-communicable diseases, all these going together with the effective implementation of the Universal Health Coverage.

Tanzania’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Grace Magembe, said this while leading the Tanzanian delegation at the East African Community Research Commission (EAC-HRC) meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya

“Tanzania continues to strengthen access to financial resources through domestic collections following the changes in the global health financing environment, to improve the health sector, including research on various diseases and the implementation of Universal Health Coverage,” he said.

Dr Magembe said Tanzania intends to strengthen the collection of health information through digital means at primary health care facilities to the national level to obtain accurate data within a short time and enable systems to be interoperable.

In addition, Dr Magembe said Tanzania has successfully controlled the second outbreak of Marburg Virus disease that occurred in March 2025 in the Kagera region, where the outbreak was controlled less than two months after it occurred.

“These achievements follow the significant investment made by the government of President  Samia Suluhu Hassan in preventing, identifying, controlling, and treating these diseases from the community level to the National.

She added “Also, Tanzania has contributed significantly to medical research, especially the study of the cervical cancer prevention vaccine (HPV) which led to the use of one dose instead of two doses for girls, the results of the study have been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) and thus reduce the cost of vaccination and increase the use of vaccines,” said Dr Magembe

In another step, Dr Magembe said the government continues to increase efforts to control non-communicable diseases by strengthening screening and treatment services for diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer at the primary health care level.