Lifestyle Changes and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer among Immigrants in the United Kingdom: Reflections and Lessons for Sub-Saharan Africa

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a public health challenge in developed countries and an emerging public health problem in developing countries. There is the established association between lifestyle and colorectal cancer globally. Scientific observations have shown low prevalence of this cancer in sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, South Asia and the Caribbean. This is not so for Australasia, North America and Western Europe where the prevalence of colorectal cancer is high. Evidence have shown that migrant populations from low risk regions to countries in North America, Europe and Australasia have an increased risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) in their newly found environment as a result of lifestyle transitions as well as these populations contributing to the burden of the disease and public health challenges in their immigrant countries. More so over the past few decades, large transitions have occurred in lifestyle in the countries of origin of these migrants and these transitions reflect in epidemiological outcomes such as; changes in average stature, body composition and observed changes in disease patterns such that these developing countries that were saddled with burdens of communicable disease (CDs) are gradually acquiring non-communicable disease (NCDs) in high proportions particularly; diabetes, cancers etc; hence the double burden of disease. Importantly, as globalization and the proliferation of “Westernized” life style continues, it is becoming increasingly common to observe in these developing countries a battle with century old issues of CDs in addition to emerging health epidemics such as cancers. It is based on this that this paper through a review of literature, discusses the risk of CRC among migrants in the UK, its' impact on the health systems and lessons for sub-Saharan Africa.Keywords: Life style; Transitions; Colorectal Cance

Donor support for HIV/AIDS control in sub-Saharan Africa: review of its contribution towards health system strengthening

Background: Consequent to the signing of the MDGs in year 2000, a platform was created for the ''injection'' of donor funds into countries with great need. This was to accelerate the achievement of the goals by the year 2015. This systematic review assesses the evidence of how international developmental assistance has impacted upon development outcomes in health systems, focusing specifically on donor support for HIV/AIDS.Methods: Via broad criteria the authors made the review as inclusive as possible and online search engines and databases including Embase, Google Scholar and Pubmed were searched over a period of eight months. Key words used to generate articles that fit the review topic included donor support, health systems, health outcomes, HIV/AIDs and Sub-Saharan Africa.Results: The review identified discernible evidence of the impact of international developmental support for health services concerned with HIV/AIDS, with concerns for health systems strengthening.Conclusion: Beyond the MDGs, the region needs a post-2015 development framework that will ensure sustainability for health system strengthening besides donor assistance. Donor support is only a part of the development picture. Economic growth and social progress as well as sustainable and workable policies for healthcare financing is needful, without which these countries which are over reliant on humanitarian actors will continue to cripple their ability to be self-sufficient and self reliant, and should these agencies cease to continue or run out of funding the consequences for the region will be dire.Keywords: sub-Saharan Africa, donor support, HIV/AIDS, health systems strengthening

Strengthening health systems through linking research evidence to health policy in sub-Saharan Africa

Background: Getting research evidence into policy in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa remains a very challenging task and huge gaps still exist between health policy makers and researchers.The health systems performance in these countries has been described as grossly sub-optimal due to increased burden of underdevelopment, political instability, weak institutions, inadequately developed social sectors, scarcity of resources and marked social inequalities.Methods: Via broad criteria the authors made the review as inclusive as possible and online search engines and databases including EMBASE, Google Scholar, Medline, SCIRUS and PUBMED were searched over a period of three months. Key words used to generate articles that fit the review topic included Evidence,Sub-Saharan Africa,Health Policy,and Health Systems.Results: All the included studies revealed the need to link evidence to health policy in order to enhance the performance of health systems in the sub-Saharan African region.Conclusion: Current efforts geared towards strengthening health systems in order to achieve universal and equitable access to health care and improve the quality of health care delivery across the region can only come to bear if health care resources are used wisely through decisions and actions from evidenced-informed policies. Accordingly, a critical way of addressing these challenges facing health systems in the region is through the linking of health research findings to policy.Keywords: Evidence; Sub-Saharan Africa; Health Policy; Health System