Chronic and infectious global diseases with a significant morbidity have been plaguing the continent of Africa. The African administration has poorly managed health organizations and introduced flimsy health schemes. This has limited the right kind of health services to a sizable population of the continent. Let us take a look at some of the killer diseases that have affected a sizable number of Africans.

HIV/AIDS

Africa has been discovered to be the nucleus of HIV/ AIDS, and accounts for 60% of the world’s HIV/AIDS infected population. Statistics show that almost 2.7 million of Africa’s population has been infected with the virus each year, with around 1.3 million deaths in sub-Saharan Africa alone in 2009. The death rate among women has been considerably high. There has been no decline in the mortality rate, which seems to have gone up considerably in recent times.

African social and economic fabric has been weakened considerably with this threat of HIV/ AIDS. If tackling the issue does not remain a priority in Africa’s development program, it will have a distressing toll on the country’s progress, with the possibility of a section of the new generation being wiped.

Tuberculosis

Close on the heels of HIV/AIDS is tuberculosis, which is responsible for a little less than 2 million deaths annually. Almost 500,000 Africans lose their lives each year from tuberculosis, with as many as 1,500 deaths occurring almost every day. In fact, Africa is the only continent which has reported a rising incidence in TB, with HIV/AIDS an active factor in the transmission of the disease.

With most of the TB deaths occurring between the age group of 15 and 54, tuberculosis was declared a national emergency. It led to a speeding up of diagnosis and treatment efforts, and saw an escalation in the measures of controlling TB-HIV. Medical facilities and the quality of health-care providers were also improved drastically.

Malaria

Although Africa witnessed a decline in malaria mortality rate in the late 1970s, it soon witnessed resurgence. Inadequate diagnosis, lack of treatment facilities and unproductive medical policies made malaria an endemic in Africa that kills almost ten million Africans annually. Close to 750,000 cases of child mortality has been recorded. Malaria and poverty are interlinked, with development of the continent the only plausible solution.

Neonatal deaths and maternal mortality

Neonatal deaths or the death of newborn babies in the first week or first month of birth are quite high in Africa. The rate of maternal mortality in rural areas has been recorded at an average of about 500 deaths per100,000 births. The reasons could be a lack of proper maternal education, insufficient awareness of high-risk births, and incompetent service delivery.

Some of the common reasons for neonatal deaths and maternal mortality are pregnancy related causes like unsafe abortions, eclampsia, infections etc; diarrhea causes, respiratory diseases, malaria, peri-natal causes, etc.

A large section of the rural and urban society in Africa belongs to the lower income group, for whom health services are not easily accessible. The African society continues to be under served when it comes to basic health facilities. Complementary health services are offered by non-governmental organizations, but they do not fill the gap completely. African countries must come up with health policies that every segment of society can easily avail.

Author Bio: Teisha Mahabir specializes in writing articles about health, diet, longevity and health specialists like Brenda Rusnak. Brenda Rusnak is a health care specialist who writes about healthy-aging and prevention. For more information about healthy-aging and Brenda Rusnak, check her out at brendarusnak.com

Category: Education
Keywords: health,trends,africa,HIV,AIDS,infected,virus,healp,health,care