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Causes of Morbidity and Mortality in Developing Countries

Globally, nations that are developed and those that are developing are encountering an

increased burden of both communicable and non-communicable diseases. Notably, the nations

that are developing are more prone and their vulnerability is high because of various factors,

involving population and socio-economic reasons. The non-communicable diseases such as;

cancer, diabetes and chronic pulmonary conditions are negatively impacting developing nations

with an exponential trend. Additionally, the diseases that are communicable like malaria,

HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis are resulting to high mortality rates. This paper explains in details how

the transition from communicable to non-communicable infections are major causes of morbidity

and mortality in most of the developing nations.

The disease burden is rapidly on the rise and they result from the interactions occurring

between the non-communicable diseases and the communicable diseases, for example between

tuberculosis and very devastated nutritional status. The most frequent non-communicable

diseases resulting from high burden of chronic communicable diseases in the African continent

involves; cancer of the cervix linked to the human papilloma virus and hepatoma which is linked

to hepatitis B virus (Boutayeb 531). The burden of chronic non-communicable diseases is seen to

be revealed as scale-up initiatives of antiretroviral treatment of HIV- infected individuals

minimize mortality rates but plays key role in scaling up morbidity linked to chronic HIV
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infection and medication. The rapidly increasing numbers of individuals in the African continent

are thus at great danger of possibility of metabolic effects from life-long antiretroviral treatment,

for example lipodystrophy.

Communicable diseases brings about not only high costs in terms of death and prolonged

suffering, but also high finances on vulnerable homes. As the non-communicable diseases

increasingly become causes of morbidity and mortality in nations that are developing, especially

African countries, they are also incurring increased cost both to the person and national economy

(Mahrel et al,. 4). Non-communicable diseases of chronic nature have big negative influence and

represents a vital obstruction to development in middle and low income. Health transitions

therefore shows a big challenge to Africa as it is the segment with few resources for proper

response to the double burden of non-communicable and communicable diseases. According to

(Boutayeb and Abdesslam 191), Uganda is an example of a developing nation going through

epidemiological change. In conclusion, it is therefore crystal clear that the transition from

communicable to non-communicable diseases is a major cause of the mortality and morbidity

influencing the sustainability of the healthcare systems in most developing countries.

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Works Cited

Boutayeb, A.. “The Burden of Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases in Developing

Countries.” Handbook of Disease Burdens and Quality of Life Measures (2010): 531–

546. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-78665-0_32

Boutayeb, Abdesslam. "The double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases in

developing countries." Transactions of the Royal society of Tropical Medicine and

Hygiene 100.3 (2006): 191-199.

Maher, Dermot, and James Sekajugo. "Research on health transition in Africa: time for

action." Health research policy and systems 9.1 (2011): 1-4.