Beyond Mere Statistics: Case Studies from the Field During the Ebola Epidemic in West Africa

Abstract

Globally, significant progress has been made with the reduction of the overall global burden of disease. For example, life expectancy has increased in many regions of the world. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, life expectancy has generally increased and in most African countries there has been a noticeable decline in the prevalence of communicable diseases in the last 10 years. Despite the decline in global disease burden, and an increase in life expectancy, across most regions of the world, sub–Saharan Africa (sSA) still bears the highest disease burden. For example, of the 36.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS globally, about 25.6 million are in sub-Saharan Africa (WHO 2017a). The Africa region has a disproportionate amount of malaria cases. In 2015, 90% of malaria cases worldwide occurred in Africa. 92% of the world wide cases, resulted in deaths in sSA. Currently there is a threat with multidrug resistant tuberculosis in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. A sharp rise in non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, stroke, depression and obesity, is evident in the region.