Number of Doctors in Africa

The qualified healthcare worker shortage in Africa is felt keenly by the poor as HIV AIDS is the biggest killer second Diarrhea diseases third Malaria. 

This article provides data from The World Health Organization on the number of generalist and specialist physicians per 1,000 of the population in Africa but first, the facts. The shortage of qualified healthcare workers brings significant social and economic losses to individuals and society at large.

Out of 54 African countries, only one African country, Mauritius meets the criteria established by The World Health Organization. The World Health Organization states 23 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 populations would be sufficient to achieve coverage of primary healthcare needs.

African countries that fall below this minimum threshold struggle to provide skilled care to pregnant women, at birth through old age as well as emergency and specialized services.

This has direct consequences on the numbers of deaths of men, women and children. A shortage of trained surgeons, anesthesiologists and obstetricians is a central cause of unequal access to medical services.

The lack of access to treatment centers, costs treatments and prevention procedures can put access to western medicine out of the reach of many families. Millions of African families use traditional medicine in one form or another because pharmaceutical drugs are too expensive or traditional medicine is considered an appropriate tradition.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC), a trio of diseases causes 42% of deaths in children under the age of five; they are malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea. 

Her Excellency (H.E.) Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as Goodwill Ambassador is addressing the shortage of qualified health workers in remote and rural areas for the health workforce. H.E Johnson Sirleaf as a WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Health Workforce is investing in the education and employment of health workers, particularly women, to achieve universal health coverage. 

Health workers are people whose job it is to protect and improve the health of their communities; they make important contributions and are critical to the functioning of health systems. 

The people of sub-Saharan Africa can live in remote areas where access to healthcare is challenging due to lack of transportation, natural and physical barriers, and poverty. Deeply-rutted mountainous dirt roads, thick with dust in the dry season and treacherously slippery in the half-yearly rainy season are difficult to navigate not only for people traveling by foot, but also for taxis, bicycles, and mopeds with passengers perched precariously on the backs. 

Throughout Africa HIV AIDS is the biggest killer; second is Diarrhea diseases and third Malaria. There are nearly 1,800 new HIV infections in children under 15, mostly from mother-to-child transmission. A significant proportion of diarrhea disease can be prevented through safe drinking water and adequate sanitation and hygiene. Malaria remains a major killer of children under five years old, taking the life of a child every two minutes. 

Dr. Hawa Abdi was Somalia’s first and only female gynecologist, lawyer and humanitarian. Opened in 1983, the Hawa Abdi Centre in the Afgooye Corridor, Somalia, was known for turning her family’s farm on the outskirts of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, into a haven for Somalis fleeing famine, poverty and an ongoing civil war.

Mama Hawa, as Dr. Abdi was known, they received free medical care, food and education, Dr. Abdi died August 5, 2020 and loved the saying “The beauty of a city is the statues or the streets. But the beauty of a human being is his work. If you want to be beautiful, do the work."

 

Number of generalist and specialist physicians per 1,000 of the population.

African Country	Number of Physicians
Mauritius	2.6 physicians/1,000 population
Seychelles	2.12 physicians/1,000 population
Libya	2.09 physicians/1,000 population
Algeria	1.79 physicians/1,000 population
Malaysia	1.54 physicians/1,000 population
Tunisia	1.3 physicians/1,000 population
South Africa	0.91 physicians/1,000 population
Egypt	0.8 physicians/1,000 population
Cabo Verde	0.78 physicians/1,000 population
Morocco	0.73 physicians/1,000 population
Gabon	0.68 physicians/1,000 population
Namibia	0.59 physicians/1,000 population
Botswana	0.53 physicians/1,000 population
Nigeria	0.45 physicians/1,000 population
Equatorial Guinea	0.4 physicians/1,000 population
Eswatini	0.33 physicians/1,000 population
Sudan	0.26 physicians/1,000 population
Cote d'Ivoire	0.23 physicians/1,000 population
Djibouti	0.22 physicians/1,000 population
Angola	0.21 physicians/1,000 population
Kenya	0.2 physicians/1,000 population
Zimbabwe	0.19 physicians/1,000 population
Mauritania	0.18 physicians/1,000 population
Madagascar	0.18 physicians/1,000 population
Uganda	0.17 physicians/1,000 population
Zambia	0.16 physicians/1,000 population
Republic of the Congo	0.16 physicians/1,000 population
Ghana	0.14 physicians/1,000 population
Rwanda	0.14 physicians/1,000 population
Mali	0.14 physicians/1,000 population
Guinea-Bissau	0.13 physicians/1,000 population
Burundi	0.1 physicians/1,000 population
Ethiopia	0.1 physicians/1,000 population
The Gambia	0.1 physicians/1,000 population
Cameroon	0.09 physicians/1,000 population
Burkina Faso	0.08 physicians/1,000 population
Mozambique	0.08 physicians/1,000 population
Guinea	0.08 physicians/1,000 population
Senegal	0.07 physicians/1,000 population
Central African Republic	0.07 physicians/1,000 population
Lesotho	0.07 physicians/1,000 population
Democratic Republic of the Congo	0.07 physicians/1,000 population
Eritrea	0.06 physicians/1,000 population
Sao Tome and Principe	0.05 physicians/1,000 population
Benin	0.05 physicians/1,000 population
Chad	0.04 physicians/1,000 population
Niger	0.04 physicians/1,000 population
Liberia	0.04 physicians/1,000 population
Togo	0.03 physicians/1,000 population
Sierra Leone	0.03 physicians/1,000 population
Malawi	0.02 physicians/1,000 population
Somalia	0.02 physicians/1,000 population
Tanzania	0.01 physicians/1,000 population

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