![]() |
![]() |
|
healthCORONAVIRUS ALERT - CASES IN AFRICA - this disease came late to Africa and as of 24 January there have been 3,418,518 cases, 3.5% of worldwide cases reported across all 54 countries. There has been 84,537 deaths on the continent, 4% of all deaths. [This death rate compares with India 1.9%, Brazil 3.2%, US 3.2%, Germany 4.2%, China 6.6%, Belgium 12.7%, UK 13%, France 14.8%] However, only deaths in hospitals from coronavirus are being recorded throughout Africa. The most confirmed cases are in South Africa 1,420,000; Morocco 470,000; Tunisia 200,000; Egypt 170,000; Ethiopia 135,000; Nigeria 130,000; Libya 120,000; Algeria 110,000; Kenya 100,000; Ghana 65,000. At the start of lockdown the UN Economic Commission for Africa warned that it was likely the pandemic could kill at least 300,000 people in Africa and push 30,000,000 into poverty. However, against this prediction is the fact that Africa has a much younger population and people there generally have a build-up of malaria resistance which together ought to contain the number of cases and fatalities. With 17% of the global population Africa has only recorded 5% of total cases so far. It can be argued that to have good health is far more important than being rich, being acclaimed as a sport or film superstar, enjoying a happy family life or having an interesting, exciting and well paid job. Health determines what you can achieve in life, where you can go, your state of mind and your ability to make your own decisions. Good health is vital if people are to make the most of their lives. Across the globe not all people have good health so the aim of every government then should be to provide medical services, free of charge, paid for by general taxation, to everyone from the cradle to the crematorium. The health of people in North America and Europe advanced immeasurably around 120 years ago with piped water coming on tap, improved sanitation and better nutritional levels. Complementing these advances were the increase in the number of doctors/nurses being trained, more advanced operations being performed and new discoveries in medicines, all of which helped push life expectancies ever higher. Then the gradual introduction of health insurance and/or free national health services ensured that health care was available to everyone from the cradle to the grave 24/7. And today, in the rich countries of the North, it seems, scientists continue to conquer new frontiers in medicine allowing surgeons to perform more intricate operations and doctors to prescribe new and better drugs for patients. Then caring nurses look after patients until they are ready to go home or move in with family or into a residential care centre. Today, in rich countries, 10% of the workforce can be found in health and social care.
It is in
the South then where the fiercest battles against disease are waged daily.
But here, the fight for better health is often undermined when doctors
and nurses, once trained, opt to leave their homeland to seek better opportunities
with higher pay overseas. This aggravates an already dreadful health situation
found in many developing countries where sometimes only 1 in 3 people
have access to hospitals and medical centres. And even for these 'lucky
ones', drugs, if there are any, are too expensive. As a result, modern
advances in medicines and treatments are beyond their reach leaving the
door open for diseases of epidemic proportions like HIV/AIDS and malaria,
and, more recently in West Africa, ebola to run rampant. Locally this
often means the decimation of entire populations leaving children orphaned,
industries depleted of skilled workers and average life expectancy spiralling
downwards.
The '2018 Mo Ibrahim Forum Report: Public service in Africa' calculates that only three African countries; Libya, Mauritius and Tunisia, have at least one doctor per 1,000 people. And it is with such poor health infrastructure that countries in the South also have to confront pollution, the largest environmental threat to human health, responsible for 8.3m premature deaths, or 15% of all deaths globally. (Pollution kills three times as many people a year as Malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS combined.) Exacerbated by climate change, according to Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP), the world faces serious risks from pollution. The top ten nations with the most pollution deaths include both the world's largest and wealthiest countries, and some of its poorer ones. However, deaths from pollution in relation to population size sees Chad, with 287 deaths per 100,000 people, top the world list. In second place is Central African Republic (251) followed by Noth Korea (202), Niger (192) and Madagascar (183). This outcome may come as a surprise to many people but the reason poor countries suffer so fundamentally from pollution is because of poor sanitation and contaminated indoor air. Then there
are the world's other major killer diseases: 92% of the malaria cases occur in Africa mostly among young children resulting in malaria being responsible for 1 in 3 hospital admissions there. A child in Africa has, on average, between 1.5 and 5.5 episodes of malarial fever every year. In Africa malaria kills a child every 2 minutes and is the leading cause of under-5 mortality there. Countries with the most cases of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, DRC, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda. (Contrastingly, in May 2019, Algeria was declared malaria-free by WHO and joins Lesotho, Mauritius and Seychelles in a small list of African countries where malaria has been conquered.) Vector control is the main way to prevent and reduce malaria transmission. Two forms of vector control are effective in a wide range of circumstances: insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) and indoor residual spraying. Over the last 15 years, there has been a major increase in coverage of ITNs in sub-Saharan Africa. By 2018, half of the population had access to an ITN, compared to less than 2% in 2000. In 2018 120 million people globally were protected by indoor residual spraying, including 50 million in Africa. About 6% of the population at risk of malaria in Africa live in households protected by indoor residual spraying. A combination of bednets and insecticide spraying should help to keep reducing dramatically the number of malaria cases as long as funding can be guaranteed. Malaria makes people feverish and unable to work and many of those who survive an attack can suffer from brain damage. In economic terms it is estimated that malaria costs Africa $12bn (£9bn) or 1.3% GNI annually in lost productivity. This tragic disease has been responsible for more deaths throughout history than any other but now it may at last start to be brought under control. In June 2019, the fight against malaria was given a boost after scientists, in a trial in Burkina Faso, made a genetically modified fungus containing spider venom and discovered that it wiped out disease-carrying mosquitos within days. Scientists
at the Jenner Institute in Oxford, in their work to discover a vaccine
to combat Covid-19, believe they have developed an effective vaccine for
malaria. This is welcome news and follows a vaccine developed by Glaxosmithkline
in 2017 which was thought to be a breakthrough but turns out only to be
30% effective. Early test results suggest that the Oxford malaria vaccine
is about to enter third-stage trials in several African countries. Most countries in sub-Saharan Africa have been slow to address the problem of AIDS mainly because of the lack of finance, government commitment and a fragmented health service. But a notable exception to this rule has been Uganda whose government was quick to move into action and as a result the infection rate there has now fallen from 30% in 1990 to just 6%. When it came to tackling prevention the Ugandan government used a combination a massive advertising through the media trying to alert youngsters of the dangers of unprotected sex and by the use of posters. The ABC approach - Abstain, Be faithful and use a Condom - was the favoured method. At the same time health services in poor countries are also starting to screen blood before transfusion so that patients do not become infected in that way.
Governments in developed countries should also use this opportune moment to go further in helping poor countries in the South combat disease. Africa, for example, shoulders 24% of the global disease burden but only accounts for 1% of the global financial resources for healthcare according to WHO. At present only 10% of global health research addresses 90% of global disease problems as there is little incentive for pharmaceutical companies to fund development into finding a cure for diseases found mainly in the third world as people there would not be able to afford the drugs. Governments in rich countries, then, should offer to fund research into not just AIDS but all tropical diseases like malaria, dengue fever, ebola etc. on the basis of richly rewarding success - and paying nothing for failure. This should fuel massive research and when success comes it would dramatically change the health landscape in the developing world. Now that would not only be globalisation at its best, it would be one of the best investments ever made on the globe. [On average, the time taken to develop a new drug from scratch takes 14 years and costs an estimated US$1.2bn (£0.9bn)]. Finally it would help third world nations enormously in developing their own health services if OECD countries refused to poach doctors and nurses trained there. In a recent 'Lancet' investigation in Africa it was found that:- - 23,000 doctors and nurses leave Africa every year. Only 50 of the 600 doctors trained in Zambia in the last few years are still in that country and there are more Ethiopian doctors in the US than there are in Ethiopia. (It has to be admitted here though that many African doctors practising in rich nations use up their holiday entitlement every year by magnanimously returning and working for nothing in their homeland.) - out of every 4 nurses who complete their training in Malawi: 1 migrates, 1 takes a better paid job in another sector, 1 dies of AIDS and only 1 remains in nursing in the country. These are ludicrous health statistics on medical personnel from the world's most blighted continent and represent an appalling loss of talent to those impoverished countries. Rich countries, then, should not only stop encouraging doctors and nurses trained in Africa from coming to work over here they should move to reverse the process altogether by offering to train doctors and nurses from the developing world on the understanding they return to their own countries. Then even more progress can be made towards the ideal of one day decent medical services being made available to everyone in every country in Africa. A report 'corruption in healthcare' produced by Transparency International in March 2019 found that 'corruption has a devastating impact on health systems and is responsible for the deaths of around 140,000 children every year holding back the fight against some of the world's deadliest diseases. While WHO estimates that an extra US$370bn per year would be enough to give everyone on the planet access to healthcare, experts warn that over US$500bn in health resources are lost annually to corruption.' The report documents how 'widespread bribe-taking, theft of medical supplies, absenteeism and other abuses prevent patients from getting the care they need, fuel antimicrobial resistance, and contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS.' Then there is EBOLA* which was discovered in 1976 when there were 2 deadly outbreaks of the disease. One was in a village near Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and hence its name. Ebola is a virus that initially causes sudden fever, intense weakness, muscle pain and a sore throat. It then progresses to vomiting, diarrhoea and both internal and external bleeding. People are infected when they have direct contact through broken skin, or the mouth and nose, with the blood, vomit, faeces or bodily fluids of someone with the disease. Patients tend to die from dehydration and multiple organ failure. *Ebola seems to have originated from bats. The latest occurrence of Ebola is in the western province of Equateur with 11 deaths recorded up to June. The average fatality rate from ebola is 50% but has reached 90% in previous outbreaks. The worst ever outbreak occurred in west Africa killing more than 11,000 people between 2014-16. The DRC is also fighting a measles epidemic that has currently killed more than 6,000 people whilst tackling Covid-19 which has infected more than 11,000 people killing 275. Also in DRC dozens of mothers, some as young as 13, are being held hostage in hospitals against their wishes because they have not paid their bills after unexpectedly having caesarean deliveries which can cost up to £400 more than a regular birth. Some have been held for months. This is reprehensible and an absolute scandal locking people up who are healthy and putting them at risk of getting Covid-19. (Amazingly, according to WHO, life expectancy in Africa has risen from 40 years in 1960, 50 years in 1990 to 60 years in 2016 due to more child vaccinations, malaria control and better HIV treatment.) [UK - In a report published in January 2016 it was disclosed that there are more than 4 million diabetics in Britain and that 2 out of 3 adults weigh too much. The UK spends £6bn per annum on the medical costs of obesity and a further £10bn on dealing with diabetes. UK ministers are currently considering taxing sugary drinks as an effective way to discourage unhealthy diets. But the British government should consider going further by encouraging people to exercise more. It is ludicrous, for example, that the average car journey in the UK is only 8 miles with 25% of these being of less than 1 mile.] [UK - bed-blocking in hospitals. It is regrettable that elderly patients who have finished their treatment cannot be discharged because they are unable to look after themselves at home. No parent would ever leave a child in hospital and no children should ever leave a parent in hospital either. Most parents spend 24/7 endless hours, particularly in the first few years, looking after and entertaining each and every child and, in return, children surely have an obligation to their parents to do the same when they get old and infirm and cannot look after themselves. In the words of a Basque proverb 'what one owes to one's parents is never repaid.' There is no doubt that old people would survive and thrive much better in the family home environment. And, after all, that is how family life has spun out all through history.] |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
just1world@just1world.org ![]() |