Global Health: A Profile of Liberia

This article provides a detailed overview of Liberia's health status, including its burden of disease, risk factors, and healthcare infrastructure. It also discusses the impact of global forces on Liberia's health and the need for sustainable development goals. The article highlights the prevalence of communicable diseases in the country, which are triggered by poverty, lack of education, and the destruction of healthcare facilities during the civil war.

Running head: GLOBAL HEALTH
Liberia
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction- The Republic of Liberia is a country present on the West African Coast
and is found to cover an approximate area of 111,369 square kilometers, and a population of
4,700,000 people. According to the population census, the density of the country is 40.43/km2
(104.7/sq mi). According to the national census conducted in 2017, the country was home to
an estimated 4,694,608 people, of whom 1,118,241 were found to reside in the most populous
region of Montserrado County (The World Bank, 2018).
Country Profile- As per the GBP reports, the country is found to suffer an extreme
burden of disease. Some of the most common conditions that are found to affect the
population of Liberia include diarrhea, HIV/AIDS, Malaria, lower respiratory infections,
congenital birth defects, and neonatal preterm birth complications that account for 11.85%,
4.87%, 8.96%, 5.55%, 3.45%, and 3.6% of total DALYs (Vizhub.healthdata.org, 2018).
Figure 1- Burden of disease
Source- (WHO, 2015)

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Furthermore, most common risk factors that were found to contribute to the
increased prevalence of the aforementioned diseases are behavioral, environmental and
metabolic factors. Reports from the World Health Organization published in 2009 suggested
that there were an estimated 17% people who lived in cities. 235/1000 live births in 2006
were found under 5 years of age, related to mortality rate. Additionally, the life expectancy
was reported to be 44 years (WHO, 2009).
These reports are also in accordance with the fact that some of the major risk factors
that are found to create an impact on the environmental burden of diseases are poor
sanitation, water and hygiene, indoor and outdoor air, and malarial vectors (WHO, 2017).
According to the African Health Observatory (2018) the people living in Liberia are
subjected to different vectors such as, A. gambiae, A. melas, A. funestus, A. hancocki.
Furthermore, cardiovascular diseases, neuropsychiatric disorders, cancers, musculoskeletal
disorders and unintentional injuries are also prevalent. The 2030 Agenda that focuses on
Sustainable Development resolves to free humankind from insufficiency, and poverty,
besides securing a healthy planet for all future generations, and building a peaceful, and all
inclusive society (United Nations, 2017).
However, the current health burden the Liberia faces calls for the immediate need of
taking efforts that will help realize these goals. According to UNDP (2016), during the Ebola
outbreak that occurred in the year 2014, an assessed 5 million kids were deprived of
education in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The expected years of schooling has been
found to be 9.9 in Liberia, in addition to a 0.427 Human Development Index (HDI).
Furthermore, only 55.2% infants were exclusively breastfed during 2010-2015, which in turn
might have contributed to lack of immunity and onset of different diseases among children.
26 and 42 infants were also found to lack immunization from DTP and measles, respectively.

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47.6% literacy rate also accounts for the lack of awareness among people on their health and
diseases (WHO, 2015).
World Bank reports suggest that the statistical capacity score of the country has
increased from 16.667 in 2004 to 51.11 in 2015. Further improvements have also been
observed 190,495,600 in 1960 to 2.034 billion in 2015. GNI/capita has seen a reduction from
400 in 1988 to 380 in 2015 (The World Bank, 2018). Although the school enrolment rates
were as high as 112.987 in 2000, they dropped to 94.089 in 2015, thus demonstrating the
backward status of the country.
Figure 2- World Bank Reports
Source- (The World Bank, 2018)

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Efforts were taken by the WFP Livelihood Asset Recovery Programme to enable
the rural communities for building and restoring the nation’s irrigation system,
agroprocessing and roads. However, an increase has been observed in the prevalence of
undernourishment from 39.4 to 42.8, and 1.3-1.9 from 2004-2016 (FAO, 2017). Liberia is
also recognized as a nation that is affected by continuous conflict. 17% of Liberia population
only had access to surface drinking water in 2015 (WHO, 2017).
Figure 3- GBD data tools
Source- (Vizhub.healthdata.org, 2018)
Thus, it can be concluded that the global forces are largely responsible for shaping the
profile of a country. Owing to the fact that there is a widespread prevalence of communicable
diseases in the nation, which in turn are triggered by poverty, lack of education, and the
destruction of the healthcare facilities of the country at the time of the civil war, Liberia can

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be considered as a highly vulnerable country and needs to effectively utilize the global forces
for achieving the sustainable development goals.

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References
African Health Observatory. (2018). Burden of disease. Retrieved from
http://www.aho.afro.who.int/profiles_information/index.php/Liberia:Burden_of_disea
se.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2017). THE STATE OF FOOD
SECURITY AND NUTRITION IN THE WORLD. Retrieved from
http://www.fao.org/3/a-I7695e.pdf.
The World Bank. (2018). Liberia. Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/country/liberia?
view=chart.
The World Bank. (2018). The World Bank In Liberia. Retrieved from
http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/liberia.
United Nations Development Programme. (2016). Human Development Report. Retrieved
from http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2016_human_development_report.pdf.
United Nations. (2017). The Sustainable Development Goals Report. Retrieved from
https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/files/report/2017/TheSustainableDevelopmentGoalsReport
2017.pdf.
Vizhub.healthdata.org. (2018). GBD Compare | Viz Hub. Retrieved from
https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-compare/.
World Health Organization. (2009). Country profile of Environmental Burden of Disease.
Retrieved from
http://www.who.int/quantifying_ehimpacts/national/countryprofile/liberia-rev.pdf.
World Health Organization. (2015). Liberia:WHO statisticalprofile. Retrieved from
http://www.who.int/gho/countries/lbr.pdf?ua=1.

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World Health Organization. (2017). Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation and
Hygiene. Retrieved from
https://www.un.org/africarenewal/sites/www.un.org.africarenewal/files/JMP-2017-
report-launch-version_0.pdf.