Health in Sudan

The total life expectancy for males and females at birth was estimated at 62 and 66 years, respectively, and this is considered the average for least developed countries.

Drought, flood, internal conflicts, and outbreaks of violence are quite common, which bring about a burden of traumatic disease and demand for high quality emergency health care.

[7] Since 1969, the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) has been the country's major centre for medical education, training, and research.

Also, the country has embarked on developing detailed roadmaps for providing universal health coverage to its population.

This well-established district system is a key component of the decentralization approach pursued in Sudan, which in turn gives a broader space for local management and administration and allows for overcoming the leadership and supervision efforts by superior bodies.

The federal level is responsible for the provision of nation-wide health policies, plans, strategies, overall monitoring and evaluation, coordination, training, and external relations.

These hospitals and centers accepts patients without being referred from the lower facilities indicating a poor referral system.

[3] It is difficult to generalize health care in Sudan because of the great disparity between the major urban areas and the rest of the country.

When illness occurs, home remedies and rest are often the only potential “treatments” available, along with a visit to a faqih or to a sorcerer, depending on region and location.

Small primary-care units staffed by knowledgeable, if not fully certified, health workers dispense rudimentary care and advice and also issue referrals to proper clinics in urban areas.

[15] The Three Towns of the capital region boast of the best medical facilities and doctors in the country, although many of these would still be considered substandard in other parts of the world.

Here, health care is available in three types of facilities: the overcrowded, poorly maintained, and underequipped government hospitals; private clinics with adequate facilities and equipment, often operated by foreign-educated doctors and charging prices affordable only by the middle and upper classes; and public clinics run by Islamist da’wa (religiously based charities) or by Christian missionaries, where adequate health care is available for a nominal fee.

More than 13,000 national and international personnel were involved in providing food, clean water, sanitation, primary health care, and medical drugs to the region's refugees.

One researcher reported that, as of 2011, reliable information on Eastern Sudan was scarce, but overall health conditions could be gauged from under-five child mortality rates per 1,000 live births.

In 2005, WHO reported that these ranged from 117 in Al-Gedaref State, to 165 in Red Sea, to 172 in Blue Nile, all high even by standards of comparable developing countries.

Acute respiratory infections, hepatitis E, measles, meningitis, typhoid, and tuberculosis are all major causes of illness and mortality.

In 2007, a study was conducted in Sudan which revealed the underreporting of malaria episodes and deaths to the formal health system, with the consequent underestimation of the disease burden.

[16] Children less than five years of age had the highest mortality rate and DALYs, emphasizing the known effect of malaria on this population group.

Females lost more DALYs than males in all age groups, which altered the picture displayed by the incidence rates alone.

A lack of safe water means that nearly 45 percent of children suffer from diarrhea, which leads to poor health and weak immune systems.

[18] Sudan is considered to be a country with an intermediate HIV and AIDS prevalence[19] by the World Health Organization (WHO).

This may be attributed to the migration of tribes from western Sudan as a result of drought and desertification in the 1970s and 1980s, and the conflicts in Darfur in 2005.

The rate is higher in Western Sudanese ethnic groups particularly in Messeryia tribes in Darfur and Kordofan regions.

Over the past decade, cardiovascular disease has been consistently reported in the top 10 causes of hospital mortality, with malaria and acute respiratory infections as the first two causes.

Prevalence rates of low physical activity, obesity, HTN, hypercholesterolaemia, diabetes and smoking were 86.8, 53.9, 23.6, 19.8, 19.2 and 12%, respectively, in the STEPS survey.

[28] On 20 June 2022, according to an analysis on food security in Sudan released by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), it was assessed that nearly a quarter of the country's population (11.7 million people) faced acute hunger due to the increase in communal conflicts and other acts of armed violence, economic problems after the 2019 Sudanese coup d'état, the displacement of more civilians, and the arrival of more refugees from neighboring countries such as South Sudan, Eritrea, Syria, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Chad, and Yemen.

[32] Dental services are included in insurance schemes with the exception of dentures, orthodontic treatments and plastic surgery.

Extreme weather events such as droughts and floods have also impacted agriculture, water resources, and human health.