The World Bank on Wednesday (27) approved a concessionary loan of US$ 200 million, at an interest rate of 1.25 percent, to Sri Lanka for the Health Sector Development Project to help the government upgrade the standards of performance of the public health system and enable it to better respond to the challenges of a middle income country, the multilateral bank said in a statement. The loan comes with a five year grace period and a 20 year payment period. The project is expected to benefit the whole population of 21 million people of the country, especially the poorer and more vulnerable groups who depend on public health services, the bank said in a statement. "This who will benefit directly from this project are those vulnerable to: under-nutrition, maternal and childcare problems, persons affecting with continuing, emerging and re-emerging communicable diseases (tuberculosis, dengue, leptospirosis, HIV/AIDS, rabbies and zoonotic diseases), and persons with acute and chronic non-communicable diseases like injuries, hear diseases, strokes, hypertension, diabetes, mellitus, cancers and mental disorders," the World Bank said. "Investing in further improvement of the health system will be a crucial prerequisite for Sri Lanka’s vision as reflected in the Mahinda Chintana," said Diarietou Gaye, Country Director World Bank Sri Lanka. "A more modernised and efficient health system employing more international standards will not only help achieve the objective of improving living standards and social inclusion, but it will also contribute to the broader objectives set out in the Mahinda Chintana document, including sustained economic growth, and move towards knowledge based and competitive economy," she said. The World Bank has supported the Sri Lankan health sector through analytical work and International Development Association (IDA) credit/grants since the late 1980s with the most recent being the Health Sector Development Project from 2004 to 2010. The project contributed to improving service delivery across the country and building system capacity at the central, provincial and district levels. "Against the backdrop of the impressive achievements in most health indicators related to mother and child services and communicable disease control there are many new challenges emerging. An increasing proportion of the population in suffering from non-communicable diseases and this increase is associated with the rapidly changing age distribution, economic development, urbanization, increased motorisation and lifestyle changes," the World Bank said. "Sri Lanka is also in the midst of nutrition transition whereby both over-nutrition and under-nutrition coexist, sometimes even in the same family," it said. "During the past half-century, the proportion of deaths due to cardiovascular diseases has increased from 3 percent to 24 percent while that due to infectious diseases has decreased from 42 percent to 20 percent. "Mental health related illness prevalence also is significant. Furthermore, the cancers of breast and the cervix and the oral cavity are the commonest types of cancers for women and men respectively. "The burden of injuries due to traffic accidents, natural disasters, industrial faults, burns, drowning, falls and violence are also substantial. Injuries affect mainly the young male population and account for 15 percent all registered deaths and approximately 18 percent of all public hospital admissions annually," the World Bank said. World Bank Senior Health Specialist Kumari Vinodhani Navaratne said: "The current health system needs improvement to deal effectively with emerging health problems of middle-income country such as ours. Developing a modern health management information system, establishment of a quality assurance system, strengthening the capacity for results based planning and management and strengthening the coordination between institutions and agencies for coordinated development and continuing human resources development are essential to improve the health system and better address the changing health needs of Sri Lanka."