Botaswana’s Minister of Health, John Seakgosing, has announced that Botswana has significantly reduced its burden of malaria from 77,555 unconfirmed cases in 2000 to 12,196 cases in 2010. Malaria deaths have decreased from 35 to seven over the same period. He said this success is due to the country's distribution programme of long lasting mosquito nets and indoor spraying in malaria-prevalent areas. The rolling out of artemisin-based combination treatment (ACT) in 2007 also contributed to the reduction of malaria cases and deaths. Moving towards the total elimination of the disease, Botswana has drafted malaria case based surveillance guidelines. According to the Minister, all malaria cases from disease-free areas will be notified, investigated and all contacts of the case will be screened. The country is committed to ensure an increase in diagnostics and ACT coverage to reach 100% of all malaria cases.
Equity in Health
The success of Botswana's "radical" antiretroviral drug program has made the country a "test case" for AIDS treatment in sub-Saharan Africa, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Botswana, which has the world's highest HIV prevalence rate - 38.5% of people between the ages of 14 and 49 are estimated to be HIV-positive - began offering treatment last year.
On 16 March 2018, Botswana became one of a dozen countries in East and Southern Africa that have launched its national demographic dividend study. A demographic dividend is not only contingent on a rapid decline in fertility and mortality. It also requires strategic investments in promoting equality, health and family planning, education and skills development, and job creation. When countries harness the demographic dividend, their young people are argued to become more empowered, healthier, better educated and have more equal access to opportunities. At the launch of Botswana’s demographic dividend report, President Mokgweetsi EK Masisi acknowledged “the right investments have to be made in Botswana for us to tap into the potential and skills of young people. Our return on investments isn’t commensurate with the expectations we have for Botswana.” The author argues that this is a golden moment for Botswana and other African countries to reprioritise their investments and tap into the potential of their young people – and for Botswana to plan for its second demographic dividend.
The Botswana government may soon test all prospective students for HIV/AIDS, reported the 'Botswana Gazette' on Thursday. Addressing first year students of the University of Botswana last week, career guidance officers from the Ministry of Education said the government was considering testing students compulsorily.
Botswana has one of the world's highest percentages of people living with HIV/AIDS. Latest figures from UNAIDS suggest more than 35 percent of Botswana's adult population carry the virus. Stigma and denial remain huge impediments to fighting the disease. A recent government report found that many Batswana still believe that HIV/AIDS was a foreign disease, which is not in Botswana or is only found in urban areas. Head of the National AIDS Coordinating Group (NACG), Babu Khan, spoke to IRIN about the challenges associated with tackling the epidemic.
Botswana's AIDS epidemic, which affects approximately one-third of the nation's population, "threatens to undermine one of [Africa's] most democratic and best educated countries," the Washington Times reports in a profile of the country. According to a Harvard University Gazette article published in April, between 36% and 38% of Botswanan adults have HIV/AIDS, and 50% of women "most likely to become pregnant" -- those between the ages of 25 and 30 -- are estimated to be HIV-positive. The average life expectancy in the country is expected to fall from 64 years in 1998 to 42 years by 2010, the Times reports. In addition, health officials say the infant mortality rate will increase from 41 infant deaths to 65 per 1,000 live births. During a recent broadcast calling on residents to "come forward" to receive free medical supplies and prescription drugs, Botswana's President Festus Mogae said, "We are the most hideously affected country in the world. The pandemic is not abating".
Last week’s annual meeting of Health Ministers at the World Health Assembly of the WHO started with the shocking news of the sudden death of its Director General, and went on to review global health problems, including avian flu, the effects of patents on health care, and the drain of doctors from poorer to rich countries.
Between six and nine million people in developing countries currently urgently need anti-retroviral treatment while in reality only between 230 000 and 300 000 have access to these drugs, according to a report by HealthGAP, a US-based human rights group.
In this editorial, the author argues that a comprehensive response to Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) not only calls for systemic changes in our physical and social environments. It also demands that we focus on equitable and universal access to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, as well as on improving the quality of life of those living with NCDs. The interconnections between policies in agriculture, education, environment, transportation, labor, trade, finance, and health run deep and their contribution to NCDs is as yet underappreciated. Thus, the response to NCDs requires an intersectoral approach – which includes civil society - that embeds health in policies across the board. Stakeholders need to educate and focus public interest, as well as that of government and industry, on the positive value of health and well-being. This will require a social movement and maximising the use of social media to generate more consumer demand for healthier products and healthier environments.
Tuberculosis can be treated, prevented, and cured. Rapid, sustained declines in tuberculosis deaths in many countries during the past 50 years provide compelling evidence that ending the pandemic is feasible. Yet this disease—which has plagued humanity since before recorded history and has killed hundreds of millions of people over the past two centuries—remains a relentless scourge. In 2017, 1.6 million people died from tuberculosis, including 300 000 people with HIV, representing more deaths than any other infectious disease. Moreover, in many parts of the world, drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis threaten struggling control efforts. The world can no longer ignore the enormous pall cast by the tuberculosis epidemic. Going forward, the global tuberculosis response must be an inclusive, comprehensive response within the broader sustainable development agenda. No one-size-fits-all approach can succeed.