By Oghenetejiri Nyerhovwo
Concerns have been raised over the increasing Tropical Parasitic Diseases as well as the burden it had placed on the region over the years with no Political Will by African leaders to nip the crippling and killing parasites in the bud.
This concern was raised by Prof. Andy Egwunyenga, Vice-Chancellor, Delta State University(DELSU), Abraka, Delta State in a keynote address at the 46th Annual conference of Parasitology and Public Health Society of Nigeria (PPSN)holding in Abraka, Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State, he lamented that the consequences of parasitic infections are very devastating in terms of human sickness and deaths, as well as agriculture and animal grazing saying that governments must rise up to the challenge.
Prof. Egwunyenga in his address the keynote address with the theme of the 46th annual conference, “POLITICAL WILL TOWARDS DISEASE CONTROL-THE AFRICAN EXPERIENCE”stressed that tropical parasites shorten lives, reduce the ability to work or attend school and impose a lifelong burden on Africa’s potential for development.
The Professor of Parasitology and Public Health Consultant who brazenly bemoaned the burden of the tropical diseases in Africa though with far fewer resources, stated that diseases cause mass poverty, high fertility rate, slow economic growth, deforestation, rapid urbanization and increased migration, wars and natural disasters across the African continent.
These, according to him, were contributing to increased transmission and distribution of diseases, hence there must be urgent need in building the political will for effective disease control to bridge the gap in health financing, priority setting and on how best to improve prevention, monitoring and control of diseases rather than relying more on foreign aid such as World Bank which, only this year, allocated $100 million to help enhance and support African countries in preparing for, detecting, and responding to disease outbreaks and public emergencies.
The Vice Chancellor of the Delta State University,(DELSU) Abraka said diseases cost the African Region $2.4 trillion a year and nearly 639 million years of healthy life were lost in 2015 while In sub-Saharan Africa, an epidemiological transition in the last 20 years has seen the rise of non-communicable disease as the leading cause of death in many countries.
According to Prof. Egwuyenga, “the health challenge has been well recognised by African governments resulting in the Abuja Declaration in 2001 and other follow-ups but responses have been mixed with most countries unable to meet the funding target of 15 percent, including Nigeria, with average budget of about 4.7 percent since the past 20 years while the highest is Swaziland with 17 percent.”
Speaking further, Prof. Egwunyenga viewed Africa’s Disease Burden With a population of 1.34 billion, to represents 16 percent of the world’s population of 7.9 billion which of course, carries 25 percent of the world’s disease burden.
He revealed that extreme poverty continues to drive increased burden of disease in Africa because of 736 million people who lived on less than $1.90 a day, more than 413 million of them were from sub-Saharan Africa; adding, “Africa share of global health expenditure is less than 1 percent leaving more than half of its population without access to essential health services”.
He expressed worry that deaths from Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDS)
are likely to increase by 17 percent globally over the next 10 years and African Region will experience a whopping 27 percent increase, which is twenty-eight million additional deaths from conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, saying they are projected to exceed the combined deaths due to communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutrition-related diseases.
Prof. Egwunyenga, however, regretted that Nigeria government, compared to other African countries has failed woefully in ensuring that 15 percent of its annual budgetary allocation goes towards health .
