Predictable Impact of Current Economic Recession on the Spread and Severity of Diseases in African Countries: Focus on Nigeria

Bamgboye M Afolabi

doi:10.21767/2471-9668.100027

Abstract

This paper hypothesizes the health effect of current economic recession in sub-Saharan African countries, especially Nigeria, and how this is projected to impact especially the child health. Malnutrition is expected to be the bed-rock of other diseases, though this may not be a new phenomenon but one that has not been adequately addressed. Most (71%) children in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from child-poverty, and may be stunted, wasted and malnourished. Over-riding disease that may super-impose on malnutrition are bacterial diseases such as pneumonia, cholera, typhoid and Cancrum oris (NOMA), viral diseases such as measles, hepatitis, resurgence of polio, helminthic diseases such as Necator americanus and parasitic diseases such as malaria. The severity of these diseases is consequent upon two major factors which are out-of-pocket expenditure and caliber of health system in the nation. The main task is for the African Union and sub-Saharan governments at all levels to institute Child Health Insurance, Child Support Grant, Women Health Insurance and Women Support Grant for the protection and support of every African child and woman. The African Union should also constitute a special task force on overall health of African children and women.

Highlights

Many African countries have gone through some measures of economic meltdown, increase in population which outstrips economic growth, or both economic recession and population increase, lasting as short as one or two years while most linger on almost indefinitely
In the past two decades, Egypt’s population growth rate of 2.4% per year makes it among the highest in the world [5] which triggers a concern for the public because of the severe economic crisis facing the country [6]
Even before the current economic crisis in the country, at least 10 million Nigerian children were deprived of a minimum of 2 of these needs, especially when the internally displaced persons (IDPs) are taken into consideration

Summary

Introduction

Many African countries have gone through some measures of economic meltdown, increase in population which outstrips economic growth, or both economic recession and population increase, lasting as short as one or two years while most linger on almost indefinitely. Natural disasters such as flood, inclement weather, desertification, ocean surge and drought have wreaked havoc in many African countries, wiping away communities. In 2014, the Ebola epidemic struck, with its epicenter in Guinea and quickly spreading through neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone to reach as far as Mali, Senegal and Nigeria. Added to this is sharp increase in the price of fuel.

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