Central African Republic - Health



Mobile crews treat local epidemic diseases, conduct vaccination and inoculation campaigns, and enforce local health regulations. They conduct research on sleeping sickness, malaria, and other tropical diseases and devise prophylactic methods best suited to the rural population. The most common diseases are bilharziasis, leprosy, malaria, tuberculosis, and yaws. The Central African Republic is a yellow fever endemic zone country. The Pasteur Institute at Bangui cooperates actively with vaccination campaigns. All medicine, antibiotics, and vaccine imports must be authorized by the Ministry of Health.

As of 1999, it was estimated that there were fewer than 0.05 physicians and 0.9 hospital beds per 1,000 people. Average life expectancy was 43 years in 2000. Also in 2000, 60% of the population had access to safe drinking water and 31% had adequate sanitation. In 1999, there were 415 reported cases of tuberculosis per 100,000 people.

The country has a birth rate of 38 per 1,000 people. The infant mortality rate in 2000 was 96 per 1,000 live births. As of 1999, the immunization rates for children up to one year old were as follows: diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus, 33% and measles, 39%.

The Central African Republic is one of several African nations with a high incidence of AIDS. At the end of 2001 the number of people living with HIV/AIDS was estimated at 250,000 (including 12.9% of the adult population) and deaths from AIDS that year were estimated at 22,000. HIV prevalence in 1999 was 13.84 per 100 adults.

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