LUANDA, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The Angolan government should continue to put more emphasis on primary public health care to reduce maternal and child mortality, an official said Wednesday.

Minister of State and head of the President's Security Office Pedro Sebastiao made these remarks during his opening address at the 28th Advisory Council of the Ministry of Health in the central Huambo province.

He said promoting universal access to essential health services will also reduce regional asymmetries, as well as socioeconomic inequalities.

Sebastiao said this greater attention is also required to ensure that the National Health Service is oriented towards disease prevention and can better respond to the immediate needs of the patients.

The official appealed to the Ministry of Health to take measures to reduce maternal and child mortality, as well as prevent and control communicable diseases, particularly malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, neglected tropical diseases, malnutrition, chronic noncommunicable diseases and road accidents.

He also called on professionals of this sector to provide more personalized services and for the government to support his call.

For this reason, he said that the Angolan government will pay greater attention to health financing, since the National Health Service depends exclusively on the state budget in the current model.

However, Sebastiao said this kind of model is unsustainable when it comes to providing universal coverage for the country's population.

But despite all these challenges, Angola has made some progress regarding the improvement of its epidemiological surveillance systems, making it more prepared and capable to detect the onset of epidemics early on.?