Africa's ailing presidents and
powerful elites have been known to jet out to seek treatment abroad, instead of
investing in healthcare in their own countries.
Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe died in a hospital in Singapore, and
Cameroon's Paul Biya regularly seeks treatment abroad.
Nigeria's
President Muhammadu Buhari was out of the country for several months in 2017
for treatment in London for an undisclosed illness and has frequent checks
abroad. Since he took office in 2015, he has embarked on at least four medical trips to the UK.
But with
flights grounded and countries across the world on lockdown in the wake of the
coronavirus pandemic, these leaders are getting a wake-up call that they must
fix their healthcare systems.
The
President of the Commonwealth
Medical Association, Osahon Enabulele, says while citizens have
endured their leaders' frequent recourse to overseas medical treatment in the
past, they may not remain so tolerant if the coronavirus wreaks
havoc as it has elsewhere in the world.
"There
is no place for any leader to hide anymore," Enabulele said. "This
whole situation of public office holders in Africa, most times using taxpayers'
money to go on foreign medical trips at the slightest discomfort is one thing
that will be reversed when this pandemic is over," Enabulele told CNN.
Infection
numbers across the continent, while significantly lower than other
parts of the world, are rising exponentially. The World Health Organization recently reported that the
number of cases in Africa was now more than 11,000, with 600 deaths.
The
pandemic has overwhelmed advanced health facilities, and experts predict it
could devastate the continent's fragile health systems, already plagued by
inadequate funding and labor disputes.
Lifesaving
machines like ventilators -- critical to the management of Covid-19 cases --
remain a luxury in some African countries.
The
Central African Republic (CAR) has only three ventilators to five million
people, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said, warning
that an outbreak could bring the tiny African nation to its knees.
"When
rich nations are in panic mode stating that thousands of ventilators will not
be enough, it just brings to light how poorer nations like CAR don't stand a
chance in the fight against Covid-19," NRC Country Director in the CAR,
David Manan said.
The
situation is equally dire in Zimbabwe, where health workers in the
nation's hospitals say they lack basics such as bandages and gloves to take
care of their patients.
Nurses
and doctors abstained from work to protest a shortage of
coronavirus protective gear after the country recorded its first fatality last
month.
Ugandan
popstar-turned-politician Bobi Wine told CNN the healthcare system in many African
countries cannot handle a mass outbreak of Covid-19.
"I
need to remind people that the coronavirus is more serious than they are
already taking it. It is killing people in big numbers in Italy where there is
a super health care system. So it scares me to even imagine what it can do in
Africa if it comes in full effect," Wine said.
Wine said
health care funding has not been at the forefront of government spending in
many African countries because their leaders often seek treatment in hospitals
abroad.
"It's
clear that healthcare is not a priority for many African governments, and they
put very little money into that sector. Anytime they are sick, or their
children are having health conditions, they opt to go outside their
countries," Wine said.
"Now
the coronavirus pandemic has set a different ground for many African leaders.
It has shown that they should have invested in the healthcare system of their
countries which would have benefited them and the people in this crisis."
The
lawmaker says monies spent on medical trips abroad could have been used to
equip local hospitals with modern medical equipment such as ventilators, which
have proved critical in treating some patients who have developed respiratory
illnesses because of Covid-19.
Wine said
some public hospitals in Uganda had become "death traps" due to years
of neglect, and some citizens, including himself, have had to pay prohibitive
costs for overseas treatment that could have been cheaper in Uganda.
Between
2019 and 2020, Uganda spent 8.9 percent of its national budget on health down
from 9.2 percent from the previous fiscal year, according to UNICEF.
"I have
had to spend my funds to seek advance treatment abroad because the procedure
could not be provided in this country. But a majority of leaders in Uganda
travel abroad for minor care using taxpayers money," Wine said.
But
Uganda's health minister Jane Aceng told CNN Wine's assessment of the country's
health system was not accurate.
"Uganda
is doing well and that shows with our response to the coronavirus situation.
We're doing well," she said.
Aceng
added that she had all the resources needed to do her job.
The East
African nation was one of the first African countries to impose travel
and strict quarantine policies to prevent the spread of coronavirus even before
it reported a case. It has so far reported 53 cases
African
leaders have consistently neglected their country's health sector despite
several pledges to do improve it, analysts say.
In 2001,
the heads of state of 52 African countries met in Nigeria's capital, Abuja and committed to spending 15 percent of their yearly
domestic budget on health.
Just a
handful of countries have met this target on the continent. They include Tanzania, Rwanda, Botswana and Zambia, according to the WHO.
Rwanda
doubled it's health care spending over a period of 10 years, the WHO said in
the 2017 report. The Central African nation has also received praised for its national health insurance
coverage which is the highest on the continent
But a
majority have fallen through the cracks in fulfilling this commitment.
Since it
signed the declaration, Nigeria has allocated less than six percent of its
budget to health, and most of the funds are spent on salaries, according to
Nigeria-based budget monitoring organization Budgit.
In a
paper published by the Brookings Institute, researchers said although Africa bore 23
percent of the world's disease burden in 2015, it accounted for only one
percent of the global health spending for the same year.
"In
per capita terms, the rest of the world spends 10 times more on health care than
Africa," the researchers said.
The
researchers predict it may be difficult for the countries on the continent to
achieve the Sustainable Development Goals with a 2030 deadline with the
"current spending environment."
Nigerian-British
historian Ed Keazor agrees that the fallout from the outbreak is a
"wake-up call" for governments to prioritize affordable health care.
Keazor, a
cancer survivor said he made the difficult decision to move back to London
where he has access to affordable care under the National Health Service even
though he works in Nigeria.
The
filmmaker said he came to Lagos for a research and film festival in March but
got caught in the city after the Nigerian government banned all international flights to contain the spread of
the outbreak.
Keazor
says he's missed an appointment with his doctor in the UK due to the travel
restriction, and that would not have been a problem if he could get the same
quality of care locally.
"If
I could get the same quality of care here (Nigeria) as in the UK where I'm a
taxpayer and getting good medical services, I would rather stay back here
because this is where my work and my larger family is but unfortunately, its
not there," Keazor told CNN.
For now,
he hopes the health crisis will change the Nigerian government's focus to where
he says it should be.
"I
hope the enormity of this problem has brought home the urgency of investment in
health care infrastructure to the government and whatever the country looks
like after this crisis is over, our priorities will be focused on heath care
and education," he said.
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