Over 11m fall into poverty after settling medical bills
What you need to know:
- The statistics of the World Health Organisationand those of the World Bank show that due to lack of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), at least 11 million peopleare caught in poverty every year in Africabecause of footing medical bills.
Kigali. At least 11 million people in Africa fall into abject poverty in Africa every year because of spending huge sums of money on footing medical bills.
This has been said during the Africa Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC) 2019 discussing the future of health care services for all in order to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030.
The conference is being held in Kigali, Rwanda.
The World Health Organization (WHO) director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said most people on the continent do not use medical insurance, thus falling into poverty when are forced to pay lots of money for treatment.
“Healthcare services in African countries, especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa, are mostly provided through cash system, which is too expensive and this leaves many people cash-strapped,” he said.
It has been explained that Africa,which has 12 percent of all people in the world, has 22 percent of a total of all diseases in the world and that over 68 percent of people living with HIV/Aids arein the Sub-Saharan Africa.
Besides, about 4.5 million under-five children die every year of malnutrition, dysentery, pneumonia, malaria and HIV/Aids.
