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Africa is home to a substantial proportion of all global chronic diseases, particularly in countries ravaged by civil war and natural disasters.
Those countries experience rapid increase in death rates from cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease and diabetes. Rising morbidity and mortality from chronic diseases co-exist with an even greater burden of infectious disease. Many African health systems are underfunded and under-resourced, while many others barely exist. They all struggle to cope with the cumulative burden of chronic diseases; many people, both adult and children suffer with diabetes without the simple management tools such as glucose-meters and insulin regiment. |
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HEPTO plans to establish chronic disease clinics, to train mid-level healthcare staff, and to provide the necessary equipment. Hepto intends to extend the services to remote areas where the medical services are absence. |
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Diabetes is one of the significant health problems in developing countries particularly Africa. For example, Ethiopia is the second most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa where more than 80% of the population lives in the countryside. The country experiences a heavy burden of the disease mainly attributed to communicable infectious diseases and nutritional deficiencies.
Currently, Ethiopia is also challenged by the growing magnitude of chronic noncommunicable diseases. The education level in the country is still a significant marker influencing the spread of illness, shaping the health seeking behavior of individuals and communities including the utilization of modern health care service. Combination of low education, lack of supplies, growing population, environmental changes and food shortage which leads to malnutrition exacerbate the chronic disease progression and make treatment difficult. |
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HEPTO has a positive, measurable and achievable goal to minimize chronic disease prevalence by using its unique intervention |
