Côte D'ivoire - Health

The public medical services are more important than the small number of private physicians and clinics. In 1990, the country had 1,020 doctors, 135 pharmacists, 219 dentists, 3,691 nurses, and 1,533 midwives. As of 1999, there were an estimated 0.1 physicians and 0.8 hospital beds per 1,000 people. About 77% of the population had access to safe water in 2000. Total health care expenditures as of 1999 were estimated at 3.7% of GDP.

Malaria, yellow fever, sleeping sickness, yaws, leprosy, trachoma, and meningitis are endemic. A broad program was set up in 1961 to control these and other diseases; compulsory vaccination against smallpox and yellow fever was instituted, efforts by mobile health units to track down cases and provide treatment were intensified, and general health measures were tightened both within the country and at the borders. In 1999, the country immunized children up to one year old as follows: diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus, 62%, and measles, 62%. In 1999, there were 375 reported cases of tuberculosis per 100,000 people and there were 4,993 cases of cholera in 1995. Malnutrition affected 24% of children under five years old.

At the end of 2001 the number of people living with HIV/AIDS was estimated at 770,000 (including 9.7% of the adult population) and deaths from AIDS that year were estimated at 75,000. HIV prevalence in 1999 was 10.76 per 100 adults. The high incidence of HIV/AIDS is attributed to a lack of HIV education programs.

In 1994, 60% of females underwent female genital mutilation. The birth rate in 1999 was 41.8 per 1,000. The infant mortality rate in 2000 was 111 per 1,000 live births and the overall death rate was 16 per 1,000. In 1993–96, 14% of all births were classified as low weight. In 2000, average life expectancy in Côte d'Ivoire was estimated at 46 years for both men and women.