Health in Burkina Faso
Rapid population growth, gender inequality, and low levels of educational attainment contribute to food insecurity and poverty in Burkina Faso.
USAID is contributing to new advances in health by increasing malaria prevention and control and expanding access to improved water resources, sanitation and family planning.
[3] A new measure of expected human capital calculated for 195 countries from 1990 to 2016 and defined for each birth cohort as the expected years lived from age 20 to 64 years and adjusted for educational attainment, learning or education quality, and functional health status was published by The Lancet in September 2018.
[6] When looking at the right to health with respect to children, Burkina Faso achieves 81.6% of what is expected based on its current income.
[6] In regards to the right to health amongst the adult population, the country achieves 85.0% of what is expected based on the nation's level of income.
[6] Burkina Faso nutrition data, based on SMART (Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions) surveys conducted by the Ministry of Health 2015–2017, was as follows, per the USAID.
But work to reverse this trend is proving successful: community meetings, peer education and a law banning the practice have helped to reduce the numbers of girls getting cut by 31%.
[14] The World Bank approved an $80 million International Development Association (IDA)* grant and $20 million from the Global Financing Facility (GFF) in Support of Every Woman, Every Child, to support the government's efforts to strengthen health services in Burkina Faso.
Burkina Faso suffers from a severe lack of qualified health workers at all levels including support staff.
[20] Burkina Faso's malaria control approach includes three components: improvements in tracking of human illness, parasite surveillance, and effective resource delivery.
[20] The increased availability of rapid diagnostic tests, artemisinin-based combination therapies, and injectable artesunate has helped improve malaria case management in health facilities.
[20] The health situation in Burkina Faso, despite a certain improvement, is still dominated by high morbidity and mortality due to endemic epidemics.
In addition, Burkina Faso is regularly confronted with epidemic outbreaks (cerebrospinal meningitis, measles, poliomyelitis).
The health of vulnerable groups is influenced by these communicable and noncommunicable diseases and remains characterised by high morbidity and mortality.
WHO recommends that countries should consider the introduction of the dengue vaccine CYD-TDV only in geographic settings (national or subnational) where epidemiological data indicate a high burden of disease.
Women have less access to land, capital, and farming inputs, which limits their productive capacity and undermines their ability to achieve or adequately support household food security.
