Publication: The State of Emergency Medical Services in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Date
2021-02-15
ISSN
Published
2021-02-15
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
Health system investments in sub-Saharan
Africa (SSA) have historically focused on primary health
care to address the high rates of communicable diseases.
However, with increasing rates of road trauma along with
other life-threatening conditions such as non-communicable
diseaseslike cardiac arrest and stroke that require urgent
medical attention, many countries must now also look to
develop functional Emergency Medical Services (EMS).
Providing efficient and effective post-crash care and
pre-hospital treatment for injuries, hemorrhage, and other
medical and obstetrical emergencies under normal operating
conditions become even more critical during disasters or
conflict situations. They should also be made a priority due
to the increasing morbidity and mortality from medical,
surgical and obstetrical emergencies. According to World
Health Organization (WHO), Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) are
currently the 8th leading cause of death globally and the
10th leading cause in SSA, resulting in more than 1.4
million deaths per year worldwide in 2016 and 284,000 in
SSA. Road injuries do not strike the population equally, and
some groups are more vulnerable than others. Globally, RTAs
are the leading cause of death for children, adolescents,
and young adults aged 5-29 years, and yet have been long
neglected in the health agenda for this group. Additionally,
more than half of all road traffic deaths are among
vulnerable road users including pedestrians, cyclists and
motorcyclists. Differences are noticeable between regions:
while pedestrians and cyclists represent 26 percent of all
deaths worldwide, they represent 44 percent of deaths in
Africa. More generally, Africa is the continent with the
highest rate of road traffic deaths with 26.6 deaths per
100,000 population in 2016, compared to 18.2 worldwide. It
is now estimated that by 2030 the numberof RTA deaths could
conceivably increase by 30 percent to 1.85 million
fatalities annually, making it the 7th leading cause of
death globally. Unfortunately, the RTA death rate in SSA is
25 percent higher than the global average (2015) and it is
projected to increase a further 72 percent by 2030 to 38
fatalities per 100,000 population. For SSA, the challenge is
even more pressing - if RTAs were to double to 514,000
annually, they would potentially become the 6th leading
cause of death by 2030 - making RTAs responsible for more
deaths than pre-term birth complications or malaria (ranked
7th and 8th, respectively).
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2021. The State of Emergency Medical Services in Sub-Saharan Africa. © Washington, DC: World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35175 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”