Health in Mali, one of the world’s poorest nations, is greatly affected by poverty, malnutrition, and inadequate hygiene and sanitation. Mali's health and development indicators rank among the worst in the world. In 2000 only 62–65 percent of the population was estimated to have access to safe drinking water and only 69 percent to sanitation services of some kind; only 8 percent was estimated to have access to modern sanitation facilities. Only 20 percent of the nation’s villages and livestock watering holes had modern water facilities.[1]
Mali is dependent on international development organizations and foreign missionary groups for much of its health care. In 2001 general government expenditures on health constituted 6.8 percent of total general government expenditures and 4.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), totaling only about US$4 per capita at an average exchange rate. Medical facilities in Mali are very limited, especially outside of Bamako, and medicines are in short supply. There were only 5 physicians per 100,000 inhabitants in the 1990s and 24 hospital beds per 100,000 in 1998. In 1999 only 36 percent of Malians were estimated to have access to health services within a five-kilometer radius.[1] There are three major public hospitals in the greater Bamako region, and in 2009 the government of Mali aided by the government of China began construction of a fourth in Missabougou quarter, Bamako, to be named "Hôpital du Mali".[2]
In June 2011, the United Nations Population Fund released a report containing a section on the midwifery workforce and policies relating to newborn and maternal mortality in Mali.[3] The 2010 maternal mortality rate per 100,000 births was 830. This compares with 880 in 2005 and 1200 in 1990. The under 5 mortality rate, per 1,000 births was 194 and the neonatal mortality as a percentage of under 5's mortality was 26. In Mali there were 3 midwives per 1,000 live births and the lifetime risk of maternal death was 1 in 22.[4]
Malaria and other arthropod-borne diseases are prevalent in Mali, as are a number of infectious diseases such as cholera, hepatitis, meningitis, and tuberculosis. Mali’s population also suffers from a high rate of child malnutrition and a low rate of immunization for childhood diseases such as measles. There were an estimated 100,000 cases of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in 2007, and an estimated 1.5 percent of the adult population was afflicted with HIV/AIDS that year, among the lowest rates in Sub-Saharan Africa (see also HIV/AIDS in Africa).[5]
Infant and juvenile mortality rates:[6]
up to 1 year: 96 deaths/1,000 live births
up to 5 years: 191 deaths/1,000 live births
Life expectancy at birth:[5]
total population: 48.4 years
male: 48 years
female: 49.1 years (2010 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 1.5% (2007 est.)[5]
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 100,000 (2007 est.)[5]
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 5,800 (2007 est.)[5]
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