Global Health Crisis

There are quite simply not enough trained health workers, education, medicines and delivery channels in developing nations to accommodate the healthcare needs of their communities: “Much of the burden of disease can be prevented or cured … the problem is getting staff, medicine, vaccines and information … to those in need of them.  56 countries worldwide have extreme shortages of health workers.  The situation is most acute in sub-Saharan Africa, which carries 25 percent of the world’s burden of disease, but has only 1.3 percent of the world’s health workforce.”  WHO, Geneva, 2005 

Latin America and the Caribbean also suffer a dearth of health professionals, leaving entire indigenous and marginalized populations without healthcare.

Growing Health Challenges
Infectious diseases and complications with reproductive and child health account for much of the health challenges facing developing countries. Adopt A Village is helping to affect changes that will improve prevention and treatment through the following efforts:

• Collaboration with local healthcare facilities and government agencies
• Partnerships with academic institutions to provide care and teaching
• Working together with medical schools in the US and abroad to exchange knowledge and resources, including faculty, nurses, medical students, MPH students, scientists, clinical rotations, clinical knowledge and resources

Malaria
300 to 500 million people are infected with malaria annually—75 percent of which are African children under the age of 5 years.

• The leading killer of children under 5 years old in Africa
• 10 percent of Africa’s disease burden
• Less than 5 percent of African children slept under mosquito nets (2004)

TB
Tuberculosis infections are on the rise.

• TB kills 2 million people a year
• Cases are complicated by HIV/AIDS infections

HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS continues to have a devastating impact on developing countries, particularly sub-Saharan Africa.

• An estimated 24.5 million adults and children live with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa at the end of 2005
• At that time, 2 million people died of AIDS, leaving behind an estimated 12 million orphaned African children

Reproductive and Child Health
Due to the lack of proper care and education, childbirth is the leading cause of death for women in the developing world.

• 1 in 61 die from childbirth in developing countries—a stark contrast to the 1 in 2,800 in developed countries
• 2/3 of newborn and young-child deaths, more than 6 million annually, are preventable

Ghanaian Health Challenges
Ghana—where Adopt A Village has focused its initial efforts—has some unique health challenges to overcome; yet all of them are preventable and curable with the help and support of people like you:

• Hypertension is the number one killer disease in this country today.
• Malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS
• Maternal and perinatal conditions