Health in Contemporary Africa by Miller Derek L.;

Author:Miller, Derek L.; [Miller, Derek L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cavendish Square Publishing LLC

Between 1977 and 2013, Maalin volunteered for a number of polio immunization campaigns. During the last one, he developed a fever while volunteering. It turned out to be malaria, and he died days later from complications. Maalin was just one of the many local people who dedicated his life to improving health in his home country. He ultimately died due to his efforts, but thanks to his work and the work of others like him polio is no longer endemic to Somalia.

Infectious Disease

All of the most deadly diseases of the continent exist throughout eastern Africa: malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/ AIDS, diarrheal diseases, and respiratory infections. They weigh heavily on public health in the region and cause numerous deaths. This chapter, we will take a closer look at malaria—one of the most famous and feared infectious diseases endemic to Africa—as well as dengue fever. Dengue fever is a disease that is getting increasing media coverage for large outbreaks in Asia and Latin America, but it also troubles Africa.

Malaria

As we saw in chapter one, malaria used to be endemic to most of the world: it has existed in every continent except Antarctica. But it has been eradicated in many regions, including some parts of Africa. In Africa, it is now restricted to a wide band that stretches across the continent around the equator: it is no longer endemic to most of northern Africa and the southern tip of Africa. (Malaria is also endemic to parts of Asia and the Americas near the equator).

India: The Pharmacy of the Developing World

India is often called the pharmacy of the developing world because of the number of pharmaceuticals it sells. This is partially because India sells medicines at much lower prices than other countries due to its patent laws. When a company first discovers (or slightly alters) a drug, the company has exclusive rights to sell the medication for twenty years. This is so that it can recoup the cost of research and development of the new medication. But this also leads to prices that are out of reach for people in developing countries. However, India makes it more difficult for pharmaceutical companies to continuously patent the same medication by making small changes in formulation in a bid to increase profits. This has lowered the prices for medication in the developing world and has proved invaluable in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa and against other diseases. Doctors Without Borders describes the situation in the following way:

India’s law sets the bar higher for what deserves a patent than other countries, filtering out patent applications that cover simple changes to existing pharmaceutical products, in the interest of public health. This has allowed the robust generic competition to continue that has, for example, resulted in the price of a basic HIV treatment combination dropping by 99 percent over the course of a decade, from over US$10,000 to around $100.

However, there has been recent pressure on the government of India from pharmaceutical companies and the United States (where most of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.