Español
  Français

Health Care, Disease Control, Crime and Safety in Mauritania

You are here: Countries / Mauritania

In matters of health, Mauritania would most likely make it to the priority list of humanitarian organizations like WHO, USAID, UN, or Red Cross as this country deeply needs all the help it can get as almost all the diseases that can break out have broken out in this country.  Infectious diseases like measles, tuberculosis, malaria, guinea worm infection, schistosomiasis, typhoid fever, polio, hepatitis, Rift Valley fever, yellow fever, cholera and HIV/AIDS have hounded the people of this country time and again. Mostly, the diseases occur more frequently in the arid northern parts as compared to the tropical south. Areas near the Senegal River are also more prone to malaria and schistosomiasis.  

The prevalence of such diseases is attributed to factors like lack of medical facilities and equipments, number of doctors, and medical help and malnutrition.

Infant mortality rates is a good gauge of the country’s management of health issues and Mauritania is currently ranked as 35th in the world of having the highest mortality rate of 61.94 deaths per 1000 live births. A high infant mortality rate means that the government doesn’t really provide programs like vaccination and reproductive health programs to ensure the health of the future generation Mauritanians.

Perhaps the most pressing health issue right now for Mauritania is its HIV/AIDS problem. Although, deaths caused by HIV/AIDS have been fewer than 1,000, the number of reported live cases as of 2007 has already reached 14,000. For a population of 13 million, that is really unusually high.

On the average, most Mauritanians dying of natural causes get to celebrate their 60th birthdays as life expectancy has been determined to be at 60.75 years.