Monthly Archives: May 2009
Non-communicable diseases in Africa
The January -June issue of the bi-annual magazine ‘The African Health Monitor’ deals with non-communicable diseases. There are a number of articles in the magazine which point out that changing lifestyles in Africa have resulted in more chronic diseases. As Dr Matshidiso Moeti states:
Heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and other chronic diseases are often thought to be public health problems of significance only in high-income countries. In reality, only 20% of chronic disease deaths occur in high-income countries, while 80% occur in low- and middle-income countries where most of the world’s populations live.
Other issues covered in the magazine are mental health, substance abuse and living with disabilities.
Download the magazine here (pdf)
Books
- Disease And Mortality in Sub-saharan Africa
- Challenges in Reforming the Health Sector in Africa (second edition)
Polio in Africa 2009
Polio not eradicated in Africa
An article on IRIN News reminds us that Polio is still a threat in many parts of Africa
Like a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, Nicksy Gumede-Moeletsi, a virologist who heads the sequencing section at the Polio Molecular Unit of South Africa‘s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), tracks her “criminal”, in this case a virus, by studying variations in the “genotypes” instead of fingerprints.
Child receiving polio vaccine. Image via Wikipedia
Another article features polio in Nigeria, and the hopes of health workers of eradicating the disease there.
Suggested Books
The Politics of Polio in Northern Nigeria
Elisha P. Renne explores the politics and social dynamics of the Northern Nigerian response to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which has been met with extreme skepticism, subversion, and the refusal of some parents to immunize their children.
Polio (Biographies of Disease)
This book offers a thorough examination of medical and scientific efforts to battle polio, from the 19th-century identification of the virus to the great 20th-century epidemics
Related articles
- Nigeria polio ‘in big increase’ (bbc.co.uk)
- Polio cases in Nigeria up 400% over last year (inquisitr.com)
- Nigeria to jail parents over polio vaccines (ctv.ca)
New index ranking how well-prepared children are to succeed in school puts Chad last
In time for the US ‘Mother’s Day’ celebrations Save the Children is publishing its 10th annual ‘State of the World’s Mothers Report’. You can download the full report from here.
As part of the report Save the Children has compiled a new index which ranks how well-prepared children are to succeed in school. It studied 100 countries and looked at issues such as the number of primary school-aged children not attending school, under-5 survival rates, grade 1 repitition rates, female literacy and female fertility. In the new ranking Chad appears last, followed by Afghanistan, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau and Mali. In these countries 20% of children ‘do often suffer cognitive and physical impairments limiting their productivity and development, according to the report’.
WEST AFRICA: Combating world’s lowest literacy rates
Illiteracy rates in West Africa
DAKAR, 22 April 2009 (IRIN) – Illiteracy rates in West Africa are the highest in the world, cramping development and weakening citizens’ power to effect socio-economic and political change, say education agencies, who are calling on governments and donors to step up literacy and education efforts.
Sixty-five million West African adults – 40 percent of the adult population – cannot read or write according to a new study, ‘From closed books to open doors – West Africa’s literacy challenge’.
Read the full article West Africa – combating the world’s lowest literacy rates