[EQ] No more disease silos for sub-Saharan Africa

No more disease silos for sub-Saharan Africa

Patricio V Marquez, lead health specialist, Eastern and Southern Africa Region World Bank, Washington, DC, USA

Jill L Farrington, honorary senior lecturer Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development, Leeds, UK
BMJ 2012; 345 doi: 10.1136/bmj.e5812 -- August 2012

….Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are facing a double burden of communicable and non-communicable disease.
Authors argue that knowledge of their common determinants and the links between diseases should be used to spur development of coordinated programmes to prevent and treat both…..

Website: http://bit.ly/Rv02Io

“…………Much illness and inefficient use of resources could be avoided in sub-Saharan Africa if the approach were rethought, building on accumulated scientific evidence and country experiences. Rather than concentrating on a few specific diseases, African governments and the international community should prioritise building health systems that offer universal financial protection against the cost of ill health along with improved access to, and the use of, quality services that meet the multiple health needs of the population.

 

But an effective response also needs to include multisectoral policies and actions for dealing with disease related risk behaviours, environmental factors, and their social and economic determinants in the entire population. Indeed, international evidence indicates that measures such as some of those included in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (for example, higher excise taxes to make tobacco products less affordable), are highly cost effective for disease prevention and control, complementing and reinforcing medical care interventions.

 

Unless appropriate action is taken, the poor health status of African populations has the potential to magnify vulnerability among the sub-Saharan African countries, which are already easy prey to a variety of shocks—economic, natural disasters and armed conflicts—that tend to perpetuate poverty across generations………….”

 

KMC/2012/HSS
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