Cholera In Africa

Africa is the second-largest continent in the world with quite the large population of human beings. It has been home of the most significant outbreaks of cholera in the world over the past years. Africa takes the most extensive record of global disease burden where cholera is among the rampant diseases that have been taken history by the world health organization. African countries report about forty-six percent of suspects that were made by world health organization, globally. (Abubakar at el 2018) Many conditions in the continent make it fertile for the occurrence and rapid transmission of cholera. There is inadequate access to clean water and sanitary facilities, mainly in the urban areas where necessary infrastructure is not sufficient.

Cholera is an infectious disease that causes severe watery diarrhea that can result to dehydration and death within a small duration of time if not treated. Individuals who are malnourished or living with HIV have high risks of death if they contract the infection. The bacteria can be transmitted from one person to another using the fecal-oral route. Also, by consuming contaminated food and water. When the disease has infected a human being, it is shown by symptoms that include severe diarrhea, vomiting dehydration that is caused by a lot of vomiting and diarrhea. (Dalhart at el 2014) When the patient is not treated at an early stage, it can lead to weakening and, finally, death.

When a human host has not yet been infected, vibrio’s, survival strategy in the water environment is the most common interaction that happens between the bacteria and copepod that becomes the first host before finding its way to human beings’ body system. The bacteria develops in the copepod until it gains strength that can be able to move in water bodies on its own. When the bacteria have aggregated on the copepod, it produces means of transmission to the human host.

Some communities do not believe in hospital treatments; instead, they take local herbal medicine that does not provide a full dose of the medication to the patient. Through this method, they retain strains of the disease in the community. Mountain burial has a high impact on increasing cholera attack rates because the water sources go from the mountain towards the low laying places. (Moore at el 2017) This will result in carrying out the disease pathogens in the water; once a person drinks such water, they get infected. Understanding the community’s perceptions of exposing people to risks and illnesses can help public health agencies to have the proper response of outbreaks.

Communities speak different languages and call names that have different meanings but are similar things. Some communities regard cholera as a deadly disease, and it is a serious matter in the community while other cities perceive the illness as a common ailment that can be handled like any other disease. The diet that human beings eat contribute to illnesses that they are likely to suffer from. In the African communities, they mainly eat food that is more of vegetables and fruits, which have more water content than cereals. (Hemson at el 2015) Fruits are imported to patients who are suffering from vomiting and diarrhea; equally, when they are planted in cholera-stricken places and swamps, they become hosts of the bacteria.

Expectations of health care on patients who are suffering from cholera is high since the disease kills in hours. Traditional healing is another factor that has held people in African hostage. They believe in local treatment rather than medication in hospitals. Local medicine is not keen to affect immediately in the human body; thus, many deaths result in such therapies.

Climate change has influenced human beings to change their activities because of use of untreated sewage waste and farm activities that have facilitated the spread of cholera. Due to the prolonged drought that results in scarcity of food, people end up growing vegetables on sewage grounds where plants cannot dry up since there is no rain.(Weill at el 2017) This activity has fueled the spread of cholera because of eating food that is not safe for human consumption. When there is an outbreak of cholera, the government imposes money to protect people for suffering and to prevent it from spreading further to other people. Through this method, the economy of the country is confiscated by budgets that were not planned. Politically, it affects the ruling government when it fails to put measures that will facilitate the prevention of cholera in the future.

Reference

Abubakar, A., Bwire, G., Azman, A. S., Bouhenia, M., Deng, L. L., Wamala, J. F., … & Martin, S. (2018). Cholera epidemic in South Sudan and Uganda and the need for international collaboration in cholera control. Emerging infectious diseases, 24(5), 883.

Dalhart, M. M., Isa, A. N., Nguku, P., Nasir, S. G., Urban, K., Abdulaziz, M., … & Poggensee, G. (2014). Descriptive characterization of the 2010 cholera outbreak in Nigeria. BMC public health, 14(1), 1167.

Hemson, D., & Dube, B. (2015). Water services and public health: the 2000-01 cholera outbreak in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Moore, S. M., Azman, A. S., Zaitchik, B. F., Mintz, E. D., Brunkard, J., Legros, D., … & Lessler, J. (2017). El Niño and the shifting geography of cholera in Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(17), 4436-4441.

Sinyange, N., Brunkard, J. M., Kapata, N., Mazaba, M. L., Musonda, K. G., Hamoonga, R., … & Nanzaluka, F. (2018). Cholera epidemic—Lusaka, Zambia, October 2017–May 2018. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(19), 556.

Weill, F. X., Doman, D., Njamkepo, E., Tarr, C., Rauzier, J., Fawal, N., … & Bercion, R. (2017). The genomic history of the seventh pandemic of cholera in Africa. Science, 358(6364), 785-789.

South Africa Health System

South Africa has a healthcare system which is structured at different levels. There are clinics, community health centers, and hospitals. The first level in the hospital structures are the clinics which treat the common needs of the people. It is these clinics that will refer someone further to the hospitals when one needs the further treatment. The clinics are either satellite or mobile clinics which are run by primary healthcare nurses. The community health centers are larger than the clinics and they have both nurses and doctors taking care of the patients. The last level of healthcare facilities are hospitals. The hospitals are for surgery, serious illnesses or emergency treatment that cannot be handled at the clinic levels. An individual can only go to the hospitals if they are referred by doctors in the clinics or in the case of an emergency. Basic healthcare is provided for free by the government through the healthcare services at the provincial level (Masquillier et al., 2015). There is also private healthcare insurance and those who get it receive tax benefits.

There are several gaps that are present in the healthcare gaps in South Africa that have contributed to the rapid spread of the HIV pandemic. South Africa has one of the highest HIV epidemics in the world with over seven million people living with it (Masquillier et al., 2015). The spread of HIV has been caused by gaps which are there in dealing with healthcare awareness for marginalized groups. There are several demographics who do not get the sexual health care that they need such as sex workers, transgender women, gay men, as well as those who inject themselves with various drugs. The second gap that is there is lack of sufficient funds to get people to test for HIV. There is also lack of sufficient facilities to serve poor populations especially in slums to give them access to critical drugs such as ARVs. The healthcare system does not have sufficient capacity to deal with nutritional issues.

One strategy that can be used to deal with the HIV/AIDs issue in South Africa is raising of public awareness through door to door campaigns especially in the slum areas. It is important for everyone to understand the importance of HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. The local community needs also to realize that it is not good to have stigmatization of the minority groups such as gay men who do not get the healthcare which they deserve. All of this should be done to ensure that these groups of people are getting the care that they need. The importance of ARVs should also be emphasized for those already suffering from the disease to get the treatment that they deserve. The healthcare clinics in the community should also be encouraged to teach people on the value of nutrition when dealing with HIV.

There are various options that are there for financing of this strategy. Internally, the government has a healthcare budget and such a strategy can get funding from there. It is important for the government to improve its healthcare allocation specifically to HIV to deal with the situation before it gets worse. Globally, organizations such as USAID and the World Healthcare Organization (WHO) can come in and deal with the problem.

References

Masquillier, C., Wouters, E., Mortelmans, D., & le Roux Booysen, F. (2015). The impact of community support initiatives on the stigma experienced by people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. AIDS and Behavior, 19(2), 214-226.