Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Ouagadougou (Fides Service) - Situated in central west Africa between the savannah and the Sahel desert, Burkina Faso has a population of 12 million, consisting for 80% in rural communities. Principle obstacles to development include high illitarcy rate and incidence of endemic and epidemic diseases. Fighting disease, a struggle started with French colonisation, is a priority which has achieved success in many fields, the eradication of small pox and sleeping sickness, and more recently, the eradication of oncocercosis (river blindness) and control of leprosy, Guinean worm, polio and tetanus in newborn babies.
Nevertheless, morbidity and mortality are still high and the more frequent pathologies are still those of infective origin, favoured by the climate, precarious sanitary conditions and lack of clean water.
The three main reasons for a medical examination, acute respiratory infections, malaria and chronic intestinal diseases, consitute over 50% of the pathologies reported by healthcare structures and are the principle causes of death for children under 5: 184 every 1,000.
With regard to epidemics, besides menigitis, Burkina Faso is exposed to measles, cholera and yellow fever. Other ermerging or reemerging patologies have assumed alarming dimensions in recent decades. For example, malaria parassites resistent to clorochine and recrudescence of TB and the HIV/AIDS pandemic affecting about 4% of the population.
A high rate of maternal mortality, a 484 deaths out of every 100,000, is due to poor sanitation, haemorrhage, bursting of the uterus, illegal abortions and indirect causes such as frequent pregnancies, malaria, anaemia and AIDS. Most of these direct or indirect causes stem from a cultural context which pays little attention to women’s problems, particularly in rural communities, whereas in cities the situation is beginning to evolve.
To fight these serious problems Burkina Faso has adopted the WHO system of Primary Health Care based on 53 health districts each with its own general hospital to which refer about 15 primary health care centres all over the area, one every 10 km and for every 10,000 inhabitants. The centres have a dispensary, mother/child clinic run by paramedics. Some years ago Burkina Faso adopted a policy of essential generic medicines to rationalise prescritopms and extend acces to treatment to as many users as possible.
The main limit of the system is lack of funds even with international aid, Burkina Faso spends less than 10 dollars a year per inhabitant on healthcare. The country has 500 doctros (1/25,000 ab.), 4,000 nurses (1/3,000 ab.) and 500 midwives (1/25,000 ab.). The local Catholic community runs 100 private non profit, healthcare centres and Cammillian Fathers, present in Burkina Faso since 1960s, run 5 of the busiest hospitals in the country. (GG/AP) (20/10/2005 Agenzia Fides; Righe: 50; Parole: 603)
