Health issues in SubSaharan Africa
Gabriella (124067) and Wissam (122482)
Health Risks in Region
• Poor sanitation & hygiene
• Rampant communicable & infectious diseases
• Limited supply of medicine
No Hygiene
Transmittable Diseases
Lack of Medicine
Water, Hygiene and Sanitation
• Lack of access to clean water and sanitation results in over one million
deaths a year in Africa (Montgomery, 2009).
• Globally, 880 million people are not supplied with clean water, and over 2.5
billion individuals lack access to proper sanitation (ibid).
• Initial cause of more serious issues such as communicable diseases
Infectious & Communicable Diseases
• Communicable diseases are diseases caused by pathogens that are transmitted
directly or indirectly from one person to another usually involving an infectious
pathogen.
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Infectious diseases are disorders caused by organisms
Examples of communicable diseases: Malaria & Cholera
Inadequate Vaccinations
91% of the Malaria cases in 2016 were in the WHO African region (WHO |
Regional Office for Africa, 2016)
Limited Supply of Medicine in Region
• Lack of access to medicines each year contributes to millions of death and
untold sufferings in Africa.
• The first source of medicines in much of Africa is the informal Drug seller.
• Limited developed integrated systems for the supply chain.
• The current system for pharmaceutical supply in many parts of Africa are
overwhelmed.
Possible Solutions
• Short Term:
Introduce quarantine to highly density areas of communicable diseases
Supply more medicines to combat diseases
Long Term:
Raise awareness and improve education/knowledge
Supply necessary regions with vaccinations
References
• Montgomery, M.A., Bartram, J. and Elimelech, M., (2009). Increasing functional sustainability of water
and sanitation supplies in rural sub-Saharan Africa. Environmental Engineering Science, 26(5),
pp.1017-1023.
• Roche, R., Bain, R. and Cumming, O., (2017). A long way to go–Estimates of combined water,
sanitation and hygiene coverage for 25 sub-Saharan African countries. PloS one, 12(2), p.e0171783.
• • Wardlaw, T., You, D., Hug, L., Amouzou, A. and Newby, H., (2014). UNICEF Report: enormous
progress in child survival but greater focus on newborns urgently needed. Reproductive health, 11(1),
p.82.
• World Health Organization. (2019). Life expectancy. [online]. Quick, J.D., Boohene, N.A., Rankin, J.
and Mbwasi, R.J., 2005. Medicines supply in Africa.
• WHO
| Regional Office for Africa. (2016). Malaria.
https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/malaria [Accessed 4 Feb. 2019].
[online]
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