Africa, continent affected by many diseases and yet by few doctors

Poverty prevented a mother from taking proper medical care for her child

Having a proper health facility is the right guaranteed in the western world or in any advanced country, but in Africa it is still a privilege for a few.

Despite international commitments made within the United Nations and the World Health Organization, adequate health care infrastructure in Africa is far from being realized. According to the United Nations, Africa holds only 3% of the health workforce in the world.

Africa is one of the world's most deadly diseases, with poverty and lack of education at its core, while the lack of appropriate medical institutions and doctors has exacerbated the health crisis. However, diseases that kill Africans are preventable in developed countries.

Taking into account the health crisis in Africa, "Amref health Africa" ​​organized an international conference on health. Agenda in Nairobi, Kenya. The purpose of the conference was to find strategies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for Africa.

The public health system in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, before Ebola, was very poor, weak and fragile, about 4.5 doctors per 100,000 inhabitants and, despite the weakness of the system, access to care Health is limited by the inability of the individual to pay.

In Kenya, a huge percentage of poor families can not pay for health care. About four out of five Kenyans do not have access to health insurance, which inevitably excludes a significant portion of the population from quality health services.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, many hospitals lack good medical facilities, patient beds and an ambulance, with the exception of Rwanda, which has 90% of health insurance coverage and even exceeds that of the United States. Libya was another country with the best health facilities and a good economy, but the country is now in ruins.

This scenario shows how infectious diseases such as HIV, diarrhea, malaria and tuberculosis are the leading cause of death on the African continent.

Infectious diseases account for 40% of deaths in developing countries and 1% in industrialized countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, HIV remains the leading cause of death: 11.5% and 70% of new cases occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.

The same region still holds 89% of malaria cases and 91% of deaths worldwide, while 95% of deaths are due to TB in low-, middle- and low-income countries.

In 2014, the Human Development Index reveals that in sub-Saharan Africa, 50% of the population lives on average below the poverty line, that is, on less than $ 2 a day. . This means that, to be optimistic, half of the population can not afford adequate health care.

As health care is paid in Africa, access is not guaranteed to the poorest segments of the population. At the Nairobi conference, all the above-mentioned issues were examined in order to find solutions to bring health care back to acceptable levels.

Ethiopia is an example of political will determined to change things. It has become a point of reference for the strategy of community health workers in Africa, with policies that have yielded significant results in disease prevention and primary care.

Africa is not poor, countries are rich and, therefore, can undertake good health projects and good roads. For example, countries with huge natural resource wealth, like Angola, about 2 million barrels of oil a day, Nigeria, 1.75 million barrels a day, Gabon, 234,000 barrels a day and the Republic of Congo, about one thousand barrels a day.

These countries are rich, they could have an equal welfare, if it was not above the European standards, but their health had not managed to make a difference in Africa.