Tanzanian Medical Situation

     45%→55.6%
What are these numbers?? The former is Tanzanian life expectancy in 1965 and the latter is the one in 2008 (The World Bank). Considering that World average life expectancy rose from 55.7% to 68.9% in the same period, it could be said the health care policy had achieved success at a certain level. However, there is room for improvement. This article tries to report the current situation briefly.

     The health policy has been influenced by political and development elements(detail: access to http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn9514264312/html/x325.html). Tanzanian health facilities were mainly offered by the government. The main aim is to distribute the hospitals properly. This matters crucially because it is estimated that in Tanzania 70% of the population live in rural areas(http://www.tanzania.go.tz/health.html).

     The serious problems are following. As WHO points out, we can see the insufficiencies of human, financial and materials to provide essential health services. Whilst the solution of this problem is suggested in the The Health Sector Reforms Programme of Tanzania, the access to health care is also related to the distribution of income.The HIV infection rate in Tanzania was recorded as 7% in 2004 (2003 -2004 Indicator Survey, National AIDS Control Programme). This is quite high compared to the (about) 0.8 percent infection rate of the world (WHO). Another crucial issue is high prevalence of malnutrition: 21.8% underweight, 37.7% stunting of children(WHO).

     The role of women in Tanzanian health care improvement should be noted as well. I would take Medical Women Association of Tanzania (MEWATA) as an example here. MEWATA is an organisation established in 1987 'to address some of the issues of women’s health, to promote interests of women in the medical profession, to assist the development of promising young women professionals and to advance the health care of women and children.' They work in three thematic areas: 1Reproductive Health & Rights(eg.Breast & Cervical Cancer, gender inequality), 2HIV/AIDS and 3Health professional and institutional advancement(eg.shortage of human resource. women's career advancement).
     Practically they have conducted Breast Cancer Walk to enhance awareness about health and participated in National HIV testing Campaign. Likewise with grant from Japan, they will construct Well Woman Clinic in Dar es salaam.

     As it was discussed above, even though they have some tasks, there are some movements to try to solve this problems. Grass roots have also played important roles as well. I would like to write another article to focus on different aspects of Tanzanian medical situation in one of these days.

*If you are interested in traditional heals, this material would be helpful: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8348785

Kei Funakoshi

References
International Medical and Technological Universityhttp://www.imtu.edu/researchpolicy.htm
The government announcement (http://www.tanzania.go.tz/health.html)
MEWATA (http://mewata.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1)
World Bank (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN?cid=GPD_10)