Health in Ethiopia
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Metrics of health in Ethiopia are among the world's worst.[1] According to the U.S. government, Ethiopia's health care system is wholly inadequate, even after recent improvements.[1]
Throughout the 1990s, the government, as part of its reconstruction program, devoted ever-increasing amounts of funding to the social and health sectors, which brought corresponding improvements in school enrollments, adult literacy, and infant mortality rates.[1] These expenditures stagnated or declined during the 1998–2000 war with Eritrea, but in the years since, outlays for health have grown steadily.[1] In 2000–2001, the budget allocation for the health sector was approximately US$144 million; health expenditures per capita were estimated at US$4.50, compared with US$10 on average in sub-Saharan Africa.[1] In 2000 the country counted one hospital bed per 4,900 population and more than 27,000 people per primary health care facility.[1] The physician to population ratio was 1:48,000, the nurse to population ratio, 1:12,000.[1] Overall, there were 20 trained health providers per 100,000 inhabitants.[1] These ratios have since shown some improvement.[1] Health care is disproportionately available in urban centers; in rural areas where the vast majority of the population resides, access to health care varies from limited to nonexistent.[1] As of the end of 2003, the United Nations (UN) reported that 4.4 percent of adults were infected with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS); other estimates of the rate of infection ranged from a low of 7 percent to a high of 18 percent.[1] Whatever the actual rate, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS has contributed to falling life expectancy since the early 1990s.[1] According to the Ministry of Health, one-third of current young adult deaths are AIDS-related.[1] Malnutrition is widespread, especially among children, as is food insecurity.[1] Because of growing population pressure on agricultural and pastoral land, soil degradation, and severe droughts that have occurred each decade since the 1970s, per capita food production is declining.[1] According to the UN and the World Bank, Ethiopia at present suffers from a structural food deficit such that even in the most productive years, at least 5 million Ethiopians require food relief.[1]
In 2002 the government embarked on a poverty reduction program that called for outlays in education, health, sanitation, and water.[1] A polio vaccination campaign for 14 million children has been carried out, and a program to resettle some 2 million subsistence farmers is underway.[1] In November 2004, the government launched a five-year program to expand primary health care.[1] In January 2005, it began distributing antiretroviral drugs, hoping to reach up to 30,000 HIV-infected adults.[1]
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