Africa is not a healthy continent....
On all indicators of health,Africa lags behind the rest of the world, and behind poor
countries of South-East and South Asia that were behind
Africa when measured on these metrics a few decades
ago. Much of this gap, which has widened since the 1980s
is a consequence of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus
/ Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS)
epidemic which has hit Africa harder than any region on
Earth, but much of it (as well as the sometimes sluggish
and ineffective responses to HIV/AIDS) can be blamed
on other factors. African governments focussed on direct
payment, and continue to do so to a large extent, after most
countries started to move more towards facilitating health
insurance schemes. Widespread and rapacious corruption
has meant that large slices of health budgets have gone
missing. Infrastructure problems have made it difficult to
provide services to many people in more remote areas.
Poverty has slowed the emergence of private healthcare
initiatives outside of a few cities. Conflict has directly affected
Africans’ health through high numbers of death and injuries,
and indirectly by hampering healthcare provision. All these
problems, as well as Africa’s sheer size and its position on the
globe – most of it is in the tropics where the nastiest germs
and parasites flourish – have made Africans unhealthier and
worse looked after medical. But all hope is not lost, we can do it, together!!
