Africa can solve its own health problems

doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7339.688

BMJ 2002;324:688-689 ( 23 March )

Editorials

Africa can solve its own health problems

But first, the continent must reorder its priorities and commit to distributive justice

See also Papers p 702

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

On the evidence of such archaeological finds as Lucy, the australopithecine female unearthed in Ethiopia's Hadar region, Africais the cradle of the human race. Africa was also home to notableancient civilisations $---$ the Egypt of the Pharaohs, the Ashanti Empireof the Gold Coast, and the Zimbabwe settlements in the south.Given such a head start, it is ironic that Africa should now finditself at the bottom of the ladder in terms of human development.Most of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa lag far behind otherdeveloping nations with respect to critical health indicatorssuch as maternal and infant mortality and lifeexpectancy.

Granted, Africa's legacy of particularly exploitative colonial occupation by European powers is partly to blame. However,Africans themselves must bear the responsibility for failing tocreate an enabling environment for better health $---$ safe water andsanitation, secure supply of food and nutrition, education, andhigher . . . [Full text of this article]

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