Kudlinski, Andre --- "Harmonizing the national policies for healthcare, pharmaceutical industry and intellectual property: The South African experience" [2013] ELECD 1388; in Abbott, M. Frederick; Correa, M. Carlos; Drahos, Peter (eds), "Emerging Markets and the World Patent Order" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013) 255

Book Title: Emerging Markets and the World Patent Order

Editor(s): Abbott, M. Frederick; Correa, M. Carlos; Drahos, Peter

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783471249

Section: Chapter 12

Section Title: Harmonizing the national policies for healthcare, pharmaceutical industry and intellectual property: The South African experience

Author(s): Kudlinski, Andre

Number of pages: 31

Abstract/Description:

Africa has a disproportionately high share of the world’s infectious disease burden: 76% of HIV/AIDS, 88% of malaria, 38% of respiratory infections and 38% of diarrheal diseases. Sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to 11% of the global population, bears 24% of the global disease burden but commands less than 1% of the global health expenditure, according to “The Business of Health in Africa” report published by the International Finance Corporation in 2007. The AIDS epidemic reduced life expectancy in countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Botswana and Zimbabwe by 20 years, from 57–65 years in the 1980s to 37–45 years by the early to mid-2000s. One child out of every ten born in Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) dies before reaching the age of 5, most of them of preventable diseases. Angola and Zimbabwe have the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. Even with the recent economic revival, chiefly driven by the growing demand for oil, gas and minerals, only a few countries in Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa can afford the US$35–40 per person per year, considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the necessary minimum to provide basic healthcare.