Tunisia Way

The efforts made in the health sector have contributed to improving health indicators as follows:

• Life expectancy increased from 68.3 years in 1987 to 73.3 years in 2005.
• Infant mortality dropped from 51.6 ‰ to 28.8‰ over the period 1987-2000.
• The rate of medical cover increased from 1 physician for 2384 inhabitants in 1990 to 1 physician for 1013 inhabitants in 2004.
• The rate of vaccine cover against the six diseases involved in the world vaccine program has extended to over 94% of children age up to one year.
• The number of basic health centers increased from 1506 in 1990 to 2067 in 2004.
• The number of hospitals increased from 156 in 1990 to 169 in 2004.

• in 1996, the World Health Organization awarded President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali the "health for all" gold medal.
• in the same year, the President also received the medal of the World Federation of Blood Donor Organizations;
• on April 2, 1997, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society awarded President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali the gold medal of its 7th Conference.
• The Gross Domestic Product allocated to the health sector is of 1.8% in 2005.
• The pharmaceutical industry made real progress over the past decade.
• the cover of national needs in locally produced medicines increased from 7% in 1987 to 43.7% in 1999.