Health Concerns and Issues for Sub-Saharan African Immigrants

Running head: HEALTH CARE
Health care
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1HEALTH CARE
Health concerns and issues for the population:
Immigrants coming from Sub-Saharan Africa have been found to be disproportionately
affected by infectious diseases like tuberculosis infection, helminths infection, Human
immunodeficiency virus infection and malaria. A study evaluating the prevalence of infectious
disease in the cohort group of Sub-Saharan Africans revealed that diagnoses of HIV, chronic
hepatitis B and tuberculosis is more common in Sub-Saharan Africans immigrants (Delcor et al.
2016). According to the report by Monge-Maillo et al. (2015), the burden of new HIV infection
varies by region. About 77% new cases of HIV infection was found in Latin America and 84%
new cases in Asia. A study done by Delcor et al. (2016) to investigate about prevalence of
disease in target population in Spain revealed diagnosis of at least one infectious disease in
72.8% of the population which can contribute to other chronic health issues. Hence, the burden
of infectious disease is particularly challenging for the target immigrant group. This is mainly
seen because of incidence of infectious disease in the country of origin, exposure to infection
during migration.
Current pharmacological treatment regimens for the health issues:
The main health concerns for Sub-Saharan Africans included high burden of infectious
diseases like HIV, tuberculosis and malaria infection. According to pharmacological treatment
regimens, the main drug for treatment of HIV includes antiretroviral therapy (ART). It is
recommended for everyone who has HIV and it works to reduce the risk of transmission. This
pharmacological regimen is also effective in reducing the viral load (Cohen et al., 2016). Patient
should understand the goal of the therapy and have the willingness to initiate the therapy
(Günthard et al., 2016). In addition, for people diagnosed with tuberculosis, specific drugs are

2HEALTH CARE
taken for 6 to 9 months to to cure the disease. The first line of anti-tuberculosis drugs includes
rifampin, pyrazinamide and isoniazid. The pharmacological regimen for TB also differs for drug
susceptible TB and drug resistant TB. The second line of drugs is used for drug resistant TB
(Center for Disease Control and Prevention 2018).
Impact of traditional beliefs associated with the health issues:
The Sub-Saharan African immigrants are at risk of infectious diseases because of their
traditional beliefs and practices. For example, early marriage and the need to migrate to new
regions influences the size of HIV and AIDs epidemics and the scale of the disease in vulnerable
population. Zhang et al. (2017) revealed that HIV rate is disproportionately high among migrants
because of unsafe sexual practices, partners and contexts. Migration is one factor that has
increased health care stressors for the immigrant population as it increases marginalization,
exposure to insecure legal standard and lack of social support in the destination country. Hence,
all these stressors associated with the process of migration increases the risk of engaging in risky
behaviours such as using illicit drugs and having unsafe sex. In addition, late HIV test is
common among African immigrants because of the use of traditional language, low education
and inability to comprehend the message of health care providers. Research study by Ojikutu et
al. (2014) reveal that language discordance and fear of deportation are some barriers faced by
immigrants that prevents them from accessing health care service. HIV related stigma and low
HIV knowledge also increases risk of unsafe sexual practices among sub-Saharan Africans.
Hayward et al. (2018) argues that inequity in socioeconomic conditions and conditions
associated with migration lead to differences in TB prevalence for migrants.