MVI Country profiles

Imprimer

Violence, injuries, and disabilities including blindness remain major challenges to public health in the African region.

Country profiles

Violence and Injuries( road traffic)

Road traffic injuries were the 4th leading cause of death among addition traffic injuries and violence combined were only second to HIV/AIDS as a cause of death among persons aged 15 and 60 years. There were an estimated 3658 deaths per week in the Africa region. The rate of road traffic death in AFRO is 40% higher than all other low and middle-income countries (28.3 compared to 20.2 per 100,000), and 50% higher than the world level, 28.3 compared to 19.0 deaths per 100,000 population (World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention.) making traffic injuries the 10th leading cause of death in the region. Children, pedestrians, cyclists and the young men are among the most vulnerable of road users.

The following tables are from the statistical annexes of the regional status report on road safety. Each table gives the detail data of a specific topic by country:

Vehicles, Road Traffic Deaths and Proportion of Road Users by Country

Blindness and Deafness

Every 5 seconds a person goes blind in the world and every minute a child goes blind. In the African Region an estimated 9 million people are blind and a further 27 million people visually impaired, of whom 80% are avoidable. This represents the highest regional burden of blindness ratio in the world. The number of blind is going to increase to double by 2020 unless measures are taken to counter the problem. The major causes of avoidable blindness are cataract (50%), glaucoma mainly open angle, diabetic retinopathy, childhood blindness, trachoma, and onchocerciasis. Uncorrected refractive errors are the main cause of visual impairment.

The following tables are from VISION 2020 country data (country by country).

Disability and Rehabilitation

Disability remains a major public health problem in Africa with about 35 million disabled people constituting around 7% of the total African population. Causes of disability include communicable and non communicable diseases, poor quality of perinatal care, injuries, malnutrition due to Vitamin A and iodine deficiency, chronic somatic and mental conditions. About 75% - 80% of disabled people in the African Region are in rural areas, where services for prevention and rehabilitation are either limited or unavailable.