Health disparities in liver disease in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Disparities in health reflect the differences in the incidence, prevalence, burden of disease and access to care determined by socio-economic and environmental factors. With liver disease, these disparities are exacerbated by a combination of limited awareness and preventable causes of morbidity and mortality in addition to the diagnostic and management costs. Sub-Saharan Africa, comprising 11% of the world's population, disproportionately has 24% of the global disease burden, yet allocates <1% of global spend on health. It has 3% of the global healthcare workforce with a mean of 0.8 healthcare workers per 1000 population. Barriers to healthcare access are many and compounded by limited civil registration data, socio-economic inequalities, discrepancies in private and public healthcare services and geopolitical strife. The UN 2014 report on the Millennium Development Goals suggest that sub-Saharan Africa will probably not meet several goals, however with HIV/AIDS and Malaria (goal 6), many successes have been achieved. A 2010 Global Burden of Disease study demonstrated that cirrhosis mortality in sub-Saharan Africa doubled between 1980 and 2010. Aetiologies included hepatitis B (34%), hepatitis C (17%), alcohol (18%) and unknown in 31%. Hepatitis B, C and alcohol accounted for 47, 23 and 20% of hepatocellular carcinoma respectively. In 10%, the underlying aetiology was not known. Liver disease reflects the broader disparities in healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa. However, many of these challenges are not insurmountable as vaccines and new therapies could comprehensively deal with the burden of viral hepatitis. Access to and affordability of therapeutics remains the major barrier.