Mozambique has highest suicide rate in Africa – WHO

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Mozambique has highest suicide rate in Africa – WHO

3:15 CAT | 20 May 2016

Lusa (File photo)

Mozambique has highest suicide rate in Africa, but ranks among the three lowest homicide mortality rates, according to a report published yesterday by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The body’s World Health Statistics, published annually since 2005, shows that world average life expectancy increased by five years between 2000 and 2015, the fastest growth since the 60s, but that the world still faces enormous inequalities both between countries and within states themselves.

Mozambique has the 10th worst life expectancy in Africa, with average life expectancy of 57.6 years for a child born in 2015, below the African average of 60 but above the figures recorded by the country in 2000 (45.2 years) and 2013 (54 years).

In WHO data from 194 countries, Mozambique stands out as African leader in suicides, with 17.3 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants. It also leads on accidental poisoning by pesticides, kerosene, household chemicals, carbon monoxide and drugs, with 8.1 deaths per 100,000.

However, in deaths from homicide, Mozambique stands out positively, with 3.4 people killed per 100,000, a rate that puts the country among the best three in Africa.

Only 51 percent of the Mozambican population has access to improved sources of drinking water, the third worst ranking in Africa, while the prevalence of low height in children under five years, at 43.1 percent, puts Mozambique fourth worst out of the 45 with data available.

The report’s HIV, tuberculosis and malaria indicators place Mozambique among the 10 worst-affected countries, with 7.4 million new adult HIV infections, eighth worst of the 44 African countries submitting data, while the incidence of tuberculosis is 551 per 100,000 people, the 5th worst in Africa.

Of every thousand people in infection risk areas, 352.3 Mozambicans caught malaria in 2013, the 8th worst incidence in Africa, but the likelihood of dying from one of the four main non-communicable diseases – cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases and diabetes – between the ages of 30 and 70 years is 17.3 percent, among the best seven on the continent.

Mozambique is in Africa’s middle ranking when it comes to peri-natal mortality rates (489 per 100,000 live births) and infant mortality (78.5 deaths of children under five per thousand live births), though improvements have occurred in recent years.

However, only 54 percent of births in Mozambique are attended by health professionals, which puts the country among the 14 least well placed on the continent.

Source: Lusa