Health Care, Disease Control, Crime and Safety in Central African Republic

As of 2008, the healthcare system of the Central African Republic is not functioning normally due to lack of doctors and nurses and other medical personnel, medical infrastructure, equipment and medicines. The ratio of doctor and nurse to the population is one doctor per 3,000 people or 0.08 doctor per 1,000 people, and one nurse per 1,000 persons. This is better than the 2004 ratio of three physicians and nine nurses per 100,000 of the population. For hospital facilities, the country has 0.87 hospital bed per 1,000 people. There are government health centers throughout the country but only 37% of the people lives inside 10 kilometers of one health center. Several clinics which are operated by missionaries provide better care but are accessible only to those who can afford the cost. This is also true with the private clinics in Bangui, which are available only to the rich.

The country is beset with not only a limited availability of healthcare and lack of financial resources, but also major health problems such as malaria, leprosy, tuberculosis, nutritional diseases, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), severe malnutrition among young children, sleeping sickness, and epidemics-related diseases such as meningitis. Faced with this situation, the government, through the Ministry of Health, has been strictly enforcing health regulations in line with the reform programs being introduced for the healthcare system. To protect the tourism industry, it has also issued an advisory for travelers and visitors to the country, stating the need for them to get vaccinations and medications before their travel; to take prescription drugs for certain diseases; to have sufficient prescription medicine to last during their stay in the country; and to make other items available such as iodine tablets or portable water filter to purify drinking water.