Issues in Africa: Health Problems

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Issues in AfricaHealth Problems
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Issues in AfricaHealth Problems
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Why are there problems?

• Directly related to underdevelopment.
• It is hard for a place to improve economically
  when the population is so greatly reduced by
  health problems like the HIV/AIDS virus and
  malaria.

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Colonial Health Practices

• European physicians-mainly military doctors.
• Treated epidemic rather than endemic diseases.

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Traditional Medicine

• During colonialism, it was the main form of
  treatment for Africans.
• Even today it is the primary means of medical
  care for many Africans.
• Many governments are experimenting with the
  integration of traditional practitioners into
  modern health services.

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Current Healthcare Picture

• HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, malnutrition,
  diarrheal diseases.
• Governments must provide
• Safe drinking water
• Adequate sanitation
• Preventative medical care
• Access of healthcare to all segments of the
  population.

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Why is disease such a problem here?

• Climate
• Malnutrition and poor healthcare make people
  susceptible.
• Inadequate healthcare education and delivery
  systems.
• Health care facilities are inaccessible by the
  rural population.

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HIV/AIDS and Malaria

• HIV/AIDS and Malaria kill more Africans than any
  other diseases.
• 70 of the people infected with the AIDS virus
  are in sub-Saharan Africa.
• 90 of the worlds Malaria cases are in Africa.
• Up to 50 of Africas population has malaria at
  one time.
• Malaria developed a resistance to anti-malarial
  drugs.

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Malnutrition

• According to the UN 200 million people were
  chronically malnourished in 1999.
• Malnutrition contributes to incidence of deaths
  among Africans from diseases that are not usually
  fatal.

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Schistosomiasis Symptoms

• Fever
• Chills
• Lymph node enlargement
• Liver/spleen enlargement
• Rash
• Diarrhea
• Frequent urination

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Schistosomiasis Transmission

• Transferred when a person has contact with
  infected water (bathing, swimming, etc.)
• Burrows into skin and moves towards liver and
  lungs

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Schistosomiasis Cure?

• Can be treated with a drug called Praziquantel
• Prevented by not swimming in contaminated water

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Sleeping Sickness Symptoms

• Fever
• Headaches
• Irritability
• Fatigue
• Swollen glands
• Aching muscles
• Confusion/personality changes

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Sleeping Sickness Transmission

• Spread through the bite of an infected tsetse fly

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Sleeping Sickness
What animals have build up immunity to sleeping
sickness and the Tsetse fly?!?
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Sleeping Sickness Cure?

• Medications can treat sleeping sickness but there
  is no prevention

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River Blindness Symptoms

• Rashes
• Nodules under skin
• Vision changes (larvae die in the eyes causing
  clouding of the cornea blindness)

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Leopard skin is one symptom of river blindness.
The more infected black fly bites a person
receives, the more severe the illness becomes.
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Okello Noel, 18, lives in Kibega Villiage, in
Pader District, Uganda. He lost his sight in 2007.
http//www.cnn.com/2013/02/02/health/riverblindnes
s/index.html?hpthp_c4
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River Blindness Transmission
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Black flies are collected by community members
who use themselves as bait. Thousands of black
flies are brought to the Carter Center-supported
lab each year. Each sample collection contains a
paper with the month, region, place of collection
and species. The flies are tested to see if they
contain DNA from the river blindness parasite, an
indication of the presence of the disease
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River Blindness Cure?

• There is nothing to prevent the disease but it
  can be treated with medications

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Community drug distributors provide doses of the
drug ivermectin for free in river blindness
endemic areas. The correct dosage is determined
by the patient's height. Mass drug distribution
is a key component of the drive to eliminate the
blinding disease throughout Uganda.
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Guinea Worm Symptoms

• Fever
• Swelling
• Pain in infected area

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Guinea Worm Transmission

• Drinking contaminated water with the parasite
• Grows 2-3 feet long and moves to lower limbs
• Blister forms, limb placed in water, blister
  bursts (releasing larvae), and worm emerges.
• Pulled out slowly

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Guinea Worm Cure?

• No medicine
• Worm can be pulled out slowly
• Drinking treated water can prevent guinea worm

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Cases have gone from 3.5 million per year in 1986
to 1,058 in 2011!
Latest on Guinea Worm Eradication During
JanuarySeptember 2012, a total of 521 cases of
Guinea worm disease were reported worldwide,
representing a 48 decrease in cases compared to
1,004 cases reported during the same period in
2011. The 2012 cases were reported from four
countries Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, and South Sudan
96 of the cases were in South Sudan (502 cases).
Most (81) of the South Sudanese cases were
confined to a single county
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Malaria Symptoms

• Fever
• Headache
• Chills
• Vomiting

An estimated 91 of deaths in 2010 were in the
African Region, followed by the South-East Asian
Region (6), and the Eastern Mediterranean Region
(3). About 86 of deaths globally were in
children.
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Malaria Transmission

• Spread through the bite of an infected mosquito

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Malaria Cure?

• Medication can be taken to prevent getting
  malaria (usually used by travelers) and to treat
  malaria.
• Prevention- controlling the number of mosquitoes

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HIV/AIDS Symptoms

• Diarrhea
• Fatigue
• Fever
• Headache
• Mouth sores
• Sore throat
• Swollen lymph glands
• Deficient immune system

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HIV/AIDS Transmission

• Contaminated blood transfusions
• Sexual contact
• Shared contaminated needles

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HIV/AIDS Cure?

• No cure
• Medications can improve life