Overview of Health Challenges in Africa

The West African Ebola epidemic, the worst in the history of the disease, has focused international attention on sub-Saharan Africa in the recent years. Several health campaign initiatives for Africa have volunteered control the epidemic swapping the continent every now and then. According to World Health Organization (WHO) figures, the five top killers in Africa are:

• HIV/AIDS,
• Lower respiratory tract infections,
• Diarrheal diseases,
• Malaria, and
• Strokes

Challenge for health care services in Africa
The sub-Saharan continent faces a lot of health concerns because of high poverty and poor hygiene practices. Besides, lack of awareness top keep diseases away, the health care services in the continent faces a number of challenges that has pushed the fatalities rate high. These are:

1.Shortage of health care professionals
The number of students attending higher education is extremely low. The number, quality, and capability of health care workers across countries as a ratio to the population is low. This makes the health care sector quite weak to cope with massive outbreaks like Ebola and malaria.

2.Corruption in the Public Sector
Rate of corruption is high in Africa compared to many other countries.this diverts much-needed resources away from health care delivery and reduces patient access to services. Lack of free medical services, and theft (for personal use) or diversion (for private sector resale) of drugs and supplies at government storage and distribution points is common.

3.Counterfeit Drugs
In Nigeria, despite regulators adoption of counterfeit drug track and trace systems, there is evidence that some of these systems are being successfully copied by counterfeit drug producers. As a consequence, counterfeit drugs are sold as authentic drugs.

4.Lack of awareness
Diseases like HIV and malaria are common in Africa primarily due to lack of awareness of safe sexual behavior and living conditions. Rapid urbanization and increased Westernization of lifestyles among the middle classes can bring down the statistics of diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes.
According to WHO, 19 are in Africa falls under highest maternal mortality ratios out of 20 countries worldwide. These region has the highest neonatal death rate in the world with high numbers of intakes for life-threatening communicable and non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and coronary heart disease. Lack of access to clean water supplies has resulted in 58% of people living in sub-Saharan Africa with diseases like hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes. With these rising concerns many organization have come up to volunteer for these issues and help the health professionals in the continent.


Author’s bio: the author is a blogger and the article is about health concerns in Africa.