Health in Lesotho

The country's health system is challenged by the relentless increase of the burden of disease brought about by AIDS, and a lack of expertise and human resources.

The largest contribution to mortality in Lesotho are communicable diseases, maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions.

[4] When looking at the right to health with respect to children, Lesotho achieves 80.5% of what is expected based on its current income.

[4] In regards to the right to health amongst the adult population, the country achieves only 43.9% of what is expected based on the nation's level of income.

Contraceptive prevalence, any method is 60.2 (% of married or in-union women of reproductive age, 15–49 years).

The scheme absorbed an average of 34.8% of the total government recurrent budget for the health sector for 2012-15.

All invasive cardiac care and cancer treatment is referred to public hospitals in Bloemfontein.

The country regards HIV as one of its most important development issues, and the government is addressing the pandemic through its HIV/AIDS National Strategic Plan.

Coverage of some key HIV/AIDS interventions has improved, including prevention of mother to child transmission and antiretroviral therapy.

The roll-out of antiretroviral therapy has made good progress, with 38,586 people receiving treatment by 2008.

The program is helping to combat two of the key drivers of the HIV/AIDS epidemic: poverty and gender inequality.

[31] Approximately 70% of patients with tuberculosis in Lesotho are co-infected with human immunodeficiency virus.

While the DALYs for COVID-19 remain unknown, Lesotho's humanitarian situation has worsened along with the increase of COVID-19 cases and deaths.

[35] Economic loss happens due to cost of treatment and lost productivity for those killed or disabled by their injuries, as well as loss of income for the family members if they can't attend work or school while taking care for the injured.

[25] Interpersonal violence can make individuals more prone to a broad range of emotional, behavioral, and physical health problems.

Traditional medicine woman travelling on foot over mountain range
The population pyramid of Lesotho illustrates the age and sex structure of population and may provide insights about political and social stability, as well as economic development. The population is distributed along the horizontal axis, with males shown on the left and females on the right. The male and female populations are broken down into 5-year age groups represented as horizontal bars along the vertical axis, with the youngest age groups at the bottom and the oldest at the top. The shape of the population pyramid gradually evolves over time based on fertility, mortality, and international migration trends.