Pharmacotherapy for hypertension in people of sub-Saharan Africa or of sub-Saharan African descent

Prostate cancer (CaP) is the leading cancer among men of African descent in the USA, Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The estimated number of CaP deaths in SSA during 2008 was more than five times that among African Americans and is expected to double in Africa by 2030. We summarize publicly available CaP data and collected data from the men of African descent and Carcinoma of the Prostate (MADCaP) Consortium and the African Caribbean Cancer Consortium (AC3) to evaluate CaP incidence and mortality in men of African descent worldwide. CaP incidence and mortality are highest in men of African descent in the USA and the Caribbean. Tumor stage and grade were highest in SSA. We report a higher proportion of T1 stage prostate tumors in countries with greater percent gross domestic product spent on health care and physicians per 100,000 persons. We also observed that regions with a higher proportion of advanced tumors reported lower mortality rates. This finding suggests that CaP is underdiagnosed and/or underreported in SSA men. Nonetheless, CaP incidence and mortality represent a significant public health problem in men of African descent around the world.

Download Full-text

Cardiometabolic Health in African Immigrants to the United States: A Call to Re-examine Research on African-descent Populations

Ethnicity & Disease ◽

10.18865/ed.25.3.373 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 373 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Yvonne Commodore-Mensah, PhD, RN ◽

Cheryl Dennison Himmelfarb, PhD, ANP, RN ◽

Charles Agyemang, PhD, MPH ◽

Anne E. Sumner, MD

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Social Economic ◽

African Descent ◽

African Immigrants ◽

The United States ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Cardiometabolic Health ◽

Optimal Care ◽

Black African ◽

Sub Saharan

In the 20th century, Africans in Sub-Saharan Africa had lower rates of cardiometabolic disease than Africans who migrated. However, in the 21st century, beyond infectious diseases, the triple epidemics of obesity, diabetes and hypertension have taken hold in Africa. Therefore, Africans are acquiring these chronic diseases at different rates and different intensity prior to migration. To ensure optimal care and health outcomes, the United States practice of grouping all African-descent populations into the “Black/ African American” category without regard to country of origin masks socioeconomic and cultural differences and needs re-evaluation. Overall, research on African-descent populations would benefit from a shift from a racial to an ethnic perspective. To demonstrate the value of disaggregating data on African-descent populations, the epidemiologic transition, social, economic, and health characteristics of African immigrants are presented. Ethn Dis. 2015;25(3):373- 380.

Download Full-text

Pan-Africanism

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy ◽

10.4324/9780415249126-z014-1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

K. Anthony Appiah

Keyword(s):

African Diaspora ◽

African Descent ◽

African State ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

African Identity ◽

Kwame Nkrumah ◽

Wide Range ◽

Pan Africanism ◽

Organization Of African Unity ◽

Sub Saharan

Pan-Africanism covers a wide range of intellectual positions which share the assumption of some common cultural or political projects for both Africans and people of African descent. The political project is the unification of all Africans into a single African state, sometimes thought of as providing a homeland for the return of those in the African diaspora. More vaguely, many self-identified pan-Africanists have aimed to pursue projects of solidarity – some political, some literary or artistic – in Africa or the African diaspora. The Pan-Africanist movement was founded in the nineteenth century by intellectuals of African descent in the Caribbean and North America, who saw themselves as belonging to a single negro race. As a result the Africa of pan-Africanism has sometimes been limited to those regions of sub-Saharan Africa largely inhabited by darker-skinned peoples, thus excluding those lighter-skinned north Africans, most of whom speak Arabic as a first language. In the twentieth century this racialized understanding of African identity has been challenged by many of the African intellectuals who took over the movement’s leadership in the period after the Second World War. Founders of the Organization of African Unity, such as Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana had a notion of Africa that was continental. However, the movement’s intellectual roots lie firmly in the racial understanding of Africa in the thought of the African-American and Afro-Caribbean intellectuals who founded it. Pan-Africanism began as a movement in the diaspora among the descendants of the slave populations of the New World and spread to Africa itself. As a result the forms of solidarity it articulated aimed to challenge anti-black racism on two fronts: racial domination in the diaspora and racialized colonial domination in the African continent. The movement’s fissures have occurred where these two clearly distinguishable projects have pulled it in different directions.

Download Full-text

RTS,S/AS01, a vaccine targeting pre-erythrocytic stages of Plasmodium falciparum

Emerging Topics in Life Sciences ◽

10.1042/etls20170101 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 1 (6) ◽

pp. 533-537

Author(s):

Lorenz von Seidlein ◽

Borimas Hanboonkunupakarn ◽

Podjanee Jittmala ◽

Sasithon Pukrittayakamee

Keyword(s):

Protective Efficacy ◽

Age Groups ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Phase Iii ◽

European Medicines Agency ◽

Older Children ◽

Pivotal Phase ◽

Malaria Epidemiology ◽

Maximum Benefit ◽

Sub Saharan

RTS,S/AS01 is the most advanced vaccine to prevent malaria. It is safe and moderately effective. A large pivotal phase III trial in over 15 000 young children in sub-Saharan Africa completed in 2014 showed that the vaccine could protect around one-third of children (aged 5–17 months) and one-fourth of infants (aged 6–12 weeks) from uncomplicated falciparum malaria. The European Medicines Agency approved licensing and programmatic roll-out of the RTSS vaccine in malaria endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa. WHO is planning further studies in a large Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme, in more than 400 000 young African children. With the changing malaria epidemiology in Africa resulting in older children at risk, alternative modes of employment are under evaluation, for example the use of RTS,S/AS01 in older children as part of seasonal malaria prophylaxis. Another strategy is combining mass drug administrations with mass vaccine campaigns for all age groups in regional malaria elimination campaigns. A phase II trial is ongoing to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of the RTSS in combination with antimalarial drugs in Thailand. Such novel approaches aim to extract the maximum benefit from the well-documented, short-lasting protective efficacy of RTS,S/AS01.

Download Full-text

Mortality and Society in Sub-Saharan Africa

Population Studies ◽

10.1080/0032472031000147416 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 47 (3) ◽

pp. 555-556

Author(s):

Lado Ruzicka

Keyword(s):

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Sub Saharan

Download Full-text

Sub-Saharan Africa

The Military Balance ◽

10.1080/04597228708459635 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 87 (1) ◽

pp. 118-142

Keyword(s):

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Sub Saharan

Download Full-text

Adolescent Suicidality as Seen in Rural Northeastern Uganda

Crisis ◽

10.1027/0227-5910/a000059 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 32 (1) ◽

pp. 43-51 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Eugene Kinyanda ◽

Ruth Kizza ◽

Jonathan Levin ◽

Sheila Ndyanabangi ◽

Catherine Abbo

Keyword(s):

Low Socioeconomic Status ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Psychosocial Risk ◽

Psychiatric Nurses ◽

Health Concern ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Childhood Experiences ◽

Low Socioeconomic ◽

Dsm Iv ◽

Sub Saharan

Background: Suicidal behavior in adolescence is a public health concern and has serious consequences for adolescents and their families. There is, however, a paucity of data on this subject from sub-Saharan Africa, hence the need for this study. Aims: A cross-sectional multistage survey to investigate adolescent suicidality among other things was undertaken in rural northeastern Uganda. Methods: A structured protocol administered by trained psychiatric nurses collected information on sociodemographics, mental disorders (DSM-IV criteria), and psychological and psychosocial risk factors for children aged 3–19 years (N = 1492). For the purposes of this paper, an analysis of a subsample of adolescents (aged 10–19 years; n = 897) was undertaken. Results: Lifetime suicidality in this study was 6.1% (95% CI, 4.6%–7.9%). Conclusions: Factors significantly associated with suicidality included mental disorder, the ecological factor district of residence, factors suggestive of low socioeconomic status, and disadvantaged childhood experiences.

Download Full-text