Department of Population and Behavioural Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Hohoe, Ghana.
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Hohoe, Ghana.
Front Public Health. 2022 Apr 4;10:856397. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.856397. eCollection 2022.
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has made major progress in improving access to health care over the past three decades. Despite efforts made toward achieving universal health coverage, the health systems of countries in the sub-region are inundated by a myriad of challenges that have become more virulent amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper discusses the health systems challenges and responses in SSA amidst the COVID-19 using the World Health Organization's (WHO) building blocks of health systems functioning. Long-lasting abysmal health system financing and insufficient government investment in SSA pose major challenges to the effective health systems functioning amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation also makes it difficult for the health system to meet the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic and at the same time, cater for other essential health services. Countries in SSA must prioritize the reformation of their health systems through effective health system policy development and implementation, human resources development, training, service delivery, governance and regulation, and sustainable health financing.
撒哈拉以南非洲（SSA）在过去三十年中在改善医疗保健方面取得了重大进展。尽管为实现全民健康覆盖做出了努力，但该地区国家的卫生系统仍面临着众多挑战，而这些挑战在 COVID-19 大流行期间变得更加严重。本文使用世界卫生组织（WHO）的卫生系统运作构成部分，讨论了 COVID-19 大流行期间 SSA 的卫生系统挑战和应对措施。在 COVID-19 大流行期间，长期存在的卫生系统融资不足和政府对 SSA 的投资不足对有效卫生系统运作构成了重大挑战。这种情况也使得卫生系统难以满足 COVID-19 大流行的需求，同时也难以满足其他基本卫生服务的需求。SSA 国家必须通过有效的卫生系统政策制定和实施、人力资源开发、培训、服务提供、治理和监管以及可持续卫生筹资，优先改革其卫生系统。
