health care

1. Overview of Health Care
In Africa

2. Introduction:
The region has 11 percent of the world’s
population but carries 24 percent of the
global disease burden. With less than 1
percent of global health expenditure and
only 3 percent of the world’s health workers,
Africa accounts for almost half the world’s
deaths of children under five, has the
highest maternal mortality rate, and bears a
heavy toll from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and
malaria. Poverty, lack of education and
infrastructure have created a society in
which it is hard to administer modern
healthcare

3. ‘Big three’ Diseases:
 HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria are three major global public health threats that undermine development in
many resource-poor and some transitional settings.
 Throughout the world, close to 5 million people die every year from these illnesses, with substantial
humanitarian, economic and social impact, which is still not fully measured.
 There are 22 million people living with HIV in Africa. For every two people who start on antiretroviral
treatment, five are newly infected with HIV. This means the number of people in need of treatment will
always increase .
 Prevalence and mortality rates of TB are falling in all other regions of the world with the exception of
African countries reaching the global target of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) appears
impossible in the African Region .
 There are 300 million cases of malaria each year worldwide, causing one million deaths. Approximately
90% of these deaths occur in Africa, mostly in young children. United Nations Children’s Emergency
Fund (UNICEF) estimates that malaria accounts for 18% of all deaths of children under 5 years of age
in Africa with diarrheal diseases and pneumonia accounting for a further 40% .

4. Vaccine-preventable infectious diseases
outbreaks in Africa:
 Despite the availability of effective vaccines against measles, cholera and meningitis, these diseases
continue to decimate the African population. The biggest recorded outbreak of epidemic meningitis in
Africa occurred in 1996 with over 250,000 cases and 25,000 deaths.
 In 2009, a meningitis outbreak killed 931 people in four West African countries. Nigeria was the most
affected with 9086 cases and 562 deaths .
 Cholera outbreaks are due to poor food and water sanitary conditions. UNICEF reports that in Central
and West Africa, access to clean safe water was worse in 2004 as compared with 1990.
 A vertical increase in cases of measles in Eastern and Southern Africa has put recent progress in
reducing mortality due to this highly contagious disease at risk of being reversed. As of mid-June 2010,
the outbreak has affected more than 47,907 children in 14 African countries, resulting in 731 deaths.
 The most recent confirmed measles outbreaks were reported from Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia . Of
note is that the measles vaccine has been in use for over 40 years; it is safe, effective and inexpensive. It
costs less than US$1 to immunize a child against measles.

5. Religion conflicts:
Regional conflicts have roots in the onset of artificial nations,
who have been dealing with international cultural issues since
the end of European Imperialism in Africa.
Along with Africa’s challenging terrains, the boundaries created
by differing cultures and even international borders that cannot
be crossed for fear of harm, kidnapping, rape, and murder make
traveling to healthcare a problem for many natives.
Regional conflicts have misplaced over 9 million refugees,
creating a poor, moving population, that is unable to access
healthcare.

6. Colonization:
The way in which many African colonies were treated under
European Colonization, there is a strong residual culture of
poverty.
Individuals have very little access to education, and because
of the lack of industrialization in these nations, there is very
little infrastructure, adding to the difficulty of travel.
The lack of infrastructure also creates a problem with the
advent of urbanization, which has created large population
centers, which lack sewers and clean water, making it easier
for disease to spread.
Many out-tribes still stick heavily to their native traditions,
and do not believe in Western Medicine

7. Educating and Acknowledging:
Education programs are already underway in which vans and
busses travel around rural Africa to distribute vaccines, and
educate the public on disease and medicine.
However, this still has trouble reaching out-lying tribes and
villages.
The US has a major force, and quite a great deal of money
involved in programs aimed at education as well as direct funding
of healthcare programs.
Over the past 20 years, the US has pumped over $50million into
healthcare programs that educate the public, distribute healthcare
products like Mosquito nets and vaccines, and pay healthcare
workers.

8. Future Aspects:
Nutrition and clean water are the most essential components of healthy living. The
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that 1.02
billion people were undernourished in 2009 – approximately 100 million more than
in 2008 .
According to a recently published report by the WHO, 884 million people do not
have access to improved sources of drinking water and the majority of them are in
Africa . The world must act fast to solve this humanity crisis as detailed in MDGs.

9. While the roll out of immunization in Africa, funded by the Global Alliance for
Vaccine and Immunization, has led to a 14% reduction in mortality overall, this has
largely been in Northern Africa, whereas sub-Saharan Africa still lags behind . The
developed nations need to work directly in improving access to relevant and
effective vaccines for Africa.
Partnerships with local institutions to enable technology transfer and also to
ensure the vaccines are relevant to the third world are the key to success. The
ongoing meningococcal vaccine project involving the WHO and the Program for
Appropriate Technology in Health is a good example of what partnerships can
achieve in vaccine development and disease prevention

10. Since group A Neisseria meningitidis is the dominant pathogen causing epidemic
meningitis in Africa, the Meningitis Vaccine Project is developing an affordable
(US$0.40 per dose) meningococcal A conjugate vaccine through an innovative
international partnership that saw transfer of a conjugation and fermentation
technology to a developing country vaccine manufacturer. Similar strategies need
to be employed with the other diseases: streptococcal and Haemophilus
influenzae type b conjugates, HIV, malaria and TB. It is also fundamental to also
fundamental to also ensure that vaccines that are already available could reach
the intended recipients in Africa.

11. Conclusion:
Donor agencies need to find ways to ensure proper utilization of their funds by
the low-income countries and may consider giving support in the form of
building infrastructure, technology transfer and human resource improvement
rather than cash handouts. Global actors must allow manufacture and usage
of cheap generic drugs in sub-Saharan Africa to combat diseases such as
malaria and HIV . These efforts would go a long way in tipping the imbalance
in favor of the underdeveloped African countries and enable them to get closer
to achieving the health-related MDGs. And just like we enjoyed the World Cup
in Africa, let us make an effort to ensure that this is indeed the time for Africa.