Non-communicable disease triggers half of Ethiopia’s mortality deaths

Ministry of Health indicates that 52 percent of annual mortality rates in Ethiopia are caused by Non-communicable disease. With regards to increase in specialized treatments in the country, the ministry is working with the Ministry of Finance to build hospitals with a public private partnership scheme.
According to the Ministry, in previous years the major death rates in the country were the infant and maternal mortality rate which has now declined over time in the country.
“The epidemiological transition that is happening in Ethiopia has made transition from predominantly infectious diseases to non-communicable diseases,” said Dr. Lia Tadesse, Minister of Health on an event hosted by Ethiopian Investment Commission to promote investment areas in the country. “Ethiopia has been successful in reducing common infectious, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional deficiency which causes premature mortality,” Dr. Lia explained.
As the Minister highlighted, this trend showed that generally, non-communicable diseases had existed to be problematic which became even more evident following greater reductions in common infectious, maternal, and nutritional diseases.
Medical treatment for such Non-communicable disease is one of the priority areas the government is working on, and as Dr. Lia revealed; her Ministry is working closely with the Ministry of Finance and has now approved public private partnership projects on the sector with auction or bidding announcements underway. Oncology projects, diagnostic centers are some of the projects that will benefit from this.
According to the information from the Ministry of Finance, there are three ongoing public private partnership projects on the health sector.
“Project management team has been established to retain a consultant for detailed feasibility study,” the finance Ministry disclosed with regards to the oncology project.
World Health Organization (WHO) estimated in 2011 that 34% of Ethiopian population is dying from non-communicable diseases to which the number has now grown to 52 percent within a space of ten years. The major non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes mellitus, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are causing higher proportions of morbidity and mortality, impacting both in the rural and urban populations of Ethiopia.
Their impact varies with type of disease, age, and region. Hospitalization impacts of cardiovascular diseases have increased over time within the last five decades. This burden is becoming a big challenge to the healthcare delivery system of the country.
As a result of this transition, according to reports ischemic heart disease, hemorrhagic stroke, ischemic stroke, diabetes, and hypertensive heart disease were found to be among the 10 leading causes of age-standardized death rates in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia’s success in decreasing the mortality rates of lower respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, measles, malaria, protein-energy malnutrition, and other diseases supports the directions and investment of the HSDP on MDG.
Infant mortality rate has decreased from 96.9 per 1000 births in 2000 to 48 per 1000 births in 2016, however as the Minister said in recent reports the death rate is 54 per 1000.
“There are many projects areas to be worked on, in the health sector and the public private partnerships are one of the options of the advancing the sector,” noted Dr. Lia whilst calling upon the diaspora community to invest in the sector; and as she indicated, Ethiopia losses about 100 million dollars annually for medical treatment abroad.
After massive study and legal document development through the Ministry of Finance, the government enacted the PPP 1076/2018 proclamation that makes it formalized for private sector involvement through public projects for the benefit of both sides.
The February 2018 proclamation allows establishing a favorable and binding legislative framework that promotes and facilitates the implementation of privately financed infrastructure projects by enhancing transparency, fairness and long terms suitability.