Telemedicine initiative for sub-Saharan Africa: Pilot project...( 47 countries and 750 million inhabitan...)

47 countries and 750 million inhabitants (2005 figures), is the one with the highest burden of communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. The average life expectancy at birth in sub-Saharan Africa was 46 in 2004. Health service coverage is low, as for example figures for immunisation coverage and the numbers of births attended by skilled personnel show. The region faces a serious health workforce crisis, due to the migration of doctors and nurses to more developed countries, and also due to the death of skilled personnel from disease.

The Telemedicine Task Force has since reviewed the health policies and strategies for African development of the New Partnership for Africas Development, of the World Health Organization and of the European Union. The strategies recognise ICT as an important enabler for progress towards these goals in the African region. The review revealed however, that overall ICT penetration in most African countries is low. For, example, despite the rapid growth of mobile phone subscribers in the last few years, the total penetration rate for the sub-Saharan region, excluding South Africa, was as low as three subscribers per 100 inhabitants for a population coverage of 48% in 2003 [ITU 2004]. Availability of computers and in particular Internet access was extremely low. Africa remains the most disenfranchised region in the world as regards Internet access. However, by complementing terrestrial infrastructure with satellite communications, complete coverage of the sub-Saharan region can be achieved, according to the Telemedicine Task Force. The proposed pilot projects should concretely demonstrate the feasibility of this approach.

In the long-term, a programmatic framework should outline actions in the step-wise development of sustainable eHealth infrastructure and services, based on the open standards and the needs of African countries in the priority areas approved by the World Health Organisation Exe
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Contact: Giorgio Parentela
giorgio.parentela@esa.int
33-015-369-7720
European Space Agency
19-Mar-2007

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