235- (Rec. 15) Health facilities were provided with a budget to take care of patients from low income families. Other initiatives were taken including making available free healthcare as was the case with the acceptance of the Mercy Ships Hospital mission in Cameroon between August 2017 and June 2018 which was an opportunity for low income families to receive care free of charge. The State is in the process of setting up a Universal Health Coverage (UHC) to provide quality care and equity in access to health services and protect people from financial hardship. 236- The UHC is in line with the objective of the National Health Development Plan 20162020 as regards strengthening of the health system which targets a reduction by at least 10% of direct payments by households through an equitable and sustainable financing policy among others. 237- The National Technical Group in charge of establishing the UHC system set up in 2015 defined the basic elements to enable political decision-making as to its implementation. Thus the validation of the benefit package for the UHC was disclosed on 12 December 2017 by the Minister of Public Health. Some 185 diseases and public health interventions including 101 sub interventions have been selected for the basic health package for the inception phase 238- The drug policy was centred on providing the people with quality drugs at affordable cost. Hence there is list of essential medicines in Cameroon which is revised from time to time as the need arises, the last been in 2017 and contains 474 medicines. During the reporting period, some medicines were subsidized and some others were distributed free of charge. In this connection, anti retrovirals for HIV/AIDs and tuberculosis medicines continued to be distributed free of charge in tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment centres. The average number of stock-out days for tracer drugs moved from 15 days in 2014 to 13.69 days in 2015 and to 10 days in 2017. 239- (Rec. 15) Concerning access to healthcare services by Children, those below 5 years were screened free of charge for HIV/AIDS and there was significant progress as regards thepercentage of HIV-positive pregnant women who received antiretrovirals to prevent transmission of HIV to their children. It increased from 32.7% in 2013 to 84% in 2015 then dropped to 75.7% in 2016 and rose to 85.8% in 2017. Children born to HIV positive mothers were given prophylactic antiretroviral treatment. 240- The Expanded Programme on Immunization offered vaccination against diseases such as tuberculosis, measles, whooping cough, neo natal titanus, diphtheria, Hepatitis B, yellow fever and poliomyelitis. In 2017, Immunization coverage in penta 3 (protects against Diphtheria, whooping cough and Tetanus) was 85% while that for BCG was 90.9%. Cameroon remained a non polio exporting country in 2017. All vaccines of the Programme are giving to children free of charge. 241- As regards diabetes, following cooperation with Novo Nordisk Laboratories, diabetic children up to the age of 21 continued to be treated free of charge in 2016 within the framework of the programme “changing diabetes in children”. 242- Treatment of malaria in children below 5 years continued to be free. The proportion of children offered free treatment for simple malaria rose from 30% in 2011 to 68% in 2014 but dropped to 59% in 2015, 47.03%, in 2016 and 41% in 2017.The percentage of children who received free treatment for severe malaria dropped from 51% in 2015 to 49.08% in 2016. Therewas provision of care at specialised units in hospitals and by Ambulatory Nutrition teams to children suffering from malnutrition. 243- The neonatal mortality rate stood at 25.7 deaths per 1,000 life births in 2013. 47