Health in Eswatini

The Health Sector in Eswatini is deteriorating and four years into the United Nations sustainable development goals, Eswatini seems unlikely to achieve the goal on good health. As a result of 63% poverty prevalence, 27% HIV prevalence, and poor health systems, maternal mortality rate is at a high of 389/100,000 live births,[1] and under 5 mortality rate is at 70.4/1000 live births[2] resulting in a life expectancy that remains amongst the lowest in the world.[3] Despite significant international aid, the government fails to adequately fund the health sector. Nurses are now and again engaged in demonstrations over poor working conditions, drug shortages, all of which impairs quality health delivery. Despite tuberculosis and AIDS being major causes of death, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases are on the rise.[4] Primary health care is relatively free in Eswatini save for its poor quality to meet the needs of the people. Road traffic accidents[5] have increased over the years and they form a significant share of deaths in the country.[6]

Furthermore, tuberculosis remains a significant problem. The shift has been towards multi-drug resistant strains. TB has an 18 percent mortality rate and 83 percent of cases are co-infected with HIV.[7] There are roughly 14,000 new TB cases diagnosed each year.[8]

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative[9] finds that Eswatini is fulfilling 74.1% of what it should be fulfilling for the right to health based on its level of income.[10] When looking at the right to health with respect to children, Eswatini achieves 85.5% of what is expected based on its current income.[10] In regards to the right to health amongst the adult population, the country achieves only 52.8% of what is expected based on the nation's level of income.[10] Eswatini falls into the "bad" category when evaluating the right to reproductive health because the nation is fulfilling only 84.2% of what the nation is expected to achieve based on the resources (income) it has available.[10]

  1. ^ "Maternal Mortality Rate". Index Mundi. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  2. ^ "Indicators in Eswanti". Index Mundi. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  3. ^ "Life Expectancy in Swaziland". World Population Review. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  4. ^ "Blobal Health Data Comparison". Vizhub. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  5. ^ "Swaziland Road Traffic Accidents". World Life Expectancy. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  6. ^ CIA Factbook, Eswatini. Central Intelligence Agency.
  7. ^ "Swaziland: An MSF Doctors Explains HIV-TB Co-Infection". USA: Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières. 28 October 2009. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 31 October 2009.
  8. ^ "HIV-TB in Swaziland: A Deadly Co-Infection Epidemic". USA: Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières. 28 October 2009. Archived from the original on 21 June 2010. Retrieved 31 October 2009.
  9. ^ "Human Rights Measurement Initiative – The first global initiative to track the human rights performance of countries". humanrightsmeasurement.org. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  10. ^ a b c d "Eswatini - HRMI Rights Tracker". rightstracker.org. Retrieved 2022-03-17.