Healthy life expectancy increased by 10 years between 2000 and 2019 on the continent. The fight against infectious diseases and the improvement of health services explain this progress.
Life expectancy in good health or the number of years an individual enjoys good health, according to the World Health Organization, has increased in Africa from 46 years in 2000 to 56 years in 2019, an increase of 10 year.
This is revealed by the recent report entitled “Monitoring Universal Health Coverage in the WHO African Region, 2022”, published by the specialized agency.
This result was achieved in large part thanks to the rapid and efficient management of maladies such as malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS; as well as improving reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health services.
Interviewed by SciDev.Net, Humphrey Karamagi, Head of Software Development systems of health at the WHO Africa Office, situates the interest of this report at three levels.
On the face of it, he says the result “shows the average African that health initiatives can and do work”.
Then he adds that these recherches on life expectancy on the continent, should allow local governments and their partners to see that the investments made in the field of health have a definite impact on populations.
Good scores that could lead donors to invest more in health systems in Africa.
Finally, argues Humphrey Karamagi, “information enables the ordinary African to hold his health officials to account, since he can compare his health to that of others”.
Determinants
Although he admits that progress in these areas may have contributed to extending life expectancy in Africa, Jérôme Ateudjieu, a research officer in the operational health research division of Cameroon's Ministry of Public Health, the analysis a bit further.
"I think the report is consistent with reality, but the determinants of increased life expectancy must be explored, also taking into account demographic parameters, access toeducation and the increasingly growing proportion of the middle class in the population,” he confides to SciDev.Net.
“We believe that improving disease management goes hand in hand with concomitant social, environmental, economic and political improvements for widespread and lasting improvement in health and well-being,” responds Humphrey Karamagi.
However, healthy life expectancy in Africa remains below the world average of 64 years.
This gap is explained by the fact that in countries where life expectancy is optimal, people hardly die of infectious diseases as is the case in Africa, but of non-infectious diseases such as diabetes, arterial hypertension, obesity and its complications, supports Anastase Dzuidie, teacher and cardiologist-rhythmologist in service at the general hospital of Douala.
“Africa would benefit, according to Anastase Dzudié, from getting ahead of these non-infectious diseases by promoting a balanced diet, the practice of physical exercise, the limitation of stress and the establishment of 'universal medical coverage,' he says.
Progress
For Humphrey Karamagi, if Africa wishes to maintain or catch up with the global average of healthy life expectancy in the coming decades, countries should invest in improving the resilience of their health services.
This means that “health services are better able to cope with shocks such as COVID-19, and to maintain their services without interruption. It is mainly by improving resilience that the progress made is not threatened by future shock events,” he advocates.
Jérôme Ateudjieu thinks for his part that "we should set up a policy reducing the negative effects of the pandemic on productivity and on the health system and conducting studies to identify interventions that can contribute to improving vaccination coverage".
According to Humphrey Karamagi, Africa must also make environmental progress through better management of climate change, housing, theurbanization and Pollution atmospheric.
This article was published on the French version of SciDev.net and is reproduced with their permission.