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Africa’s Healthcare Cocktail: Of Coverage, Cost And Innovation
“You guys are investing in hospitals.” That was the question (or masked hope) of an American-trained Ethiopian doctor, the owner and head doctor of a local hospital in Addis Ababa. The question is a familiar one to investors in many of Sub-Saharan Africa’s emerging economies. Many foreign-trained doctors are returning home to the desperate health sectors in Africa. The perilous state of health care in Sub-Saharan Africa begs for more investment. Communicable and parasitical diseases persist, with few countries able to provide basic sanitation, clean water and adequate nutrition to all of their citizenry. Few countries are able to spend the $35 per person that the World Health Organization (WHO) considers the minimum for basic health care. But despite the extensive poverty, more than 50 percent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s health expenditure is paid out-of-pocket by individuals.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Ghana to vaccinate girls against cervical cancer – Mahama
Ghana this year will begin a demonstration project vaccinating girls against human papillomavirus (HPV). The HPV is the leading cause of cervical cancer, which is the biggest cancer killer of women on the African continent.President John Mahama revealed this in New York on Tuesday, when Ghana hosted a side event at the ongoing UN General Assembly, in collaboration with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) and the Global Fund.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Financial services access hits 67% on mobile payments
Two thirds of Kenyans are now able to access formal financial services indicating increased deposit mobilisation in the country following success in mobile payment services and increased penetration by commercial banks.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Multi-level strategy to fight malaria launched by UN development arm and partners
The United Nations and a coalition of partners today launched a comprehensive approach to fighting malaria, a disease which – despite tremendous advances – still kills an estimated 660,000 people each year and poses a major challenge to development. With the participation of world leaders gathered in New York for the 68th General Assembly, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) launched the Multisectoral Action Framework for Malaria, which calls for greater coordinated action among different development sectors to tackle the disease, which exacts its deadliest toll in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health
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Malaria Will Be The First Disease Beaten By Mobile
"Malaria will be the first disease beaten by mobile.” That’s what Martin Edlund, the CEO of Malaria No More, told the buzzing crowd during his Social Good Summit talk earlier today. Edlund and his organization view the mobile phone as a game-changer in the fight against malaria, a disease that killed 660,000 people last year – primarily women and children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Edlund explained that malaria “thrives on bad information” and lack of data. And mobile phones are helping connect the dots between all the other malaria-fighting tools.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Uganda streamlines healthcare with mobile technology
Uganda has received the African Development Bank's prestigious eHealth award for its M-Trac health management system, which has successfully changed the face of health service delivery in the country. At Uganda’s many remote health centres, putting pen to paper was the only way to alert health officials to problems such as drug shortages or outbreaks of malaria.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Uganda: Executive Style – Managing Patients’ Records for Better Health
Claude VendetteOne Solutions, an ICT support company, is pioneering an innovative ICT-based record-keeping system to improve on operations at health facilities - which will ultimately contribute to the streamlining of processes in the health care delivery system in Uganda. The CEO, Claude Vendette, spoke to The Independent about its benefits.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Kenyans Find the Unintended Consequences of Mobile Money
In Western Kenya, “Sambaza” is both a marketing slogan and means for despair. It means “to spread.” Vodafone-owned Safaricom, the dominant mobile provider in Kenya, uses it as a brand name for a service that allows customers to transfer airtime to each other. According to a new study funded by the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMFTI), the word has also come to refer to the way money in a mobile account slips away, drip by drip, as friends and family ask for favors.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa