Hunger and disease associated with inherent environment difficulties of Africa are the multiplicity and variety of microbes and parasites which attack animals, crops and men. Locusts, mosquitoes, tsetse flies, hook-worms and water - borne disease organisms have greatly influenced the growth and migration of people in Africa. So also have diseases such as typhus,small pox plague, trachoma, leprosy, tuberculosis and the venereal diseases. Unfortunately, the incidence of many of those diseases has increased during this century, and many have spread through the greater mobility of population in Africa brought by European intervention. Diseases of more temperate lands, such as influenza, have been introduced, and have spread rapidly among fairly segregated population with no immunity.
Widespread malnutrition helps the spread of disease. Lack of protein is specially noteworthy, owing to low consumption of animal products. Deficiency diseases, such as beriberi, kwashiorkor and pellagra are common in certain parts. The worst diets are often found among the new town - dwellers, who cannot afford to eat enough food of the right types. They are also sometimes guilty of excessive consumption of alcohol, which has become a social disease in many non-islamic countries.
Disease and hunger ensure high mortality, and sometimes reduce the average expectation of life to well below 30 years. They also cause high sickness rate, as well as debility, apathy and fatalism. Great effort have been made to combat disease, especially in those countries colonized by Europeans, but the real disorder is malnutrition, which in turn, depends on the social economic advancement of the African peoples. Backwardness and superstition are closely related to the frequently appalling conditions of hygiene, the inadequate and unbalanced diet, and the high pre-natal and infant mortality. A great increase in education is necessary to ameliorate these conditions.
Widespread malnutrition helps the spread of disease. Lack of protein is specially noteworthy, owing to low consumption of animal products. Deficiency diseases, such as beriberi, kwashiorkor and pellagra are common in certain parts. The worst diets are often found among the new town - dwellers, who cannot afford to eat enough food of the right types. They are also sometimes guilty of excessive consumption of alcohol, which has become a social disease in many non-islamic countries.
Disease and hunger ensure high mortality, and sometimes reduce the average expectation of life to well below 30 years. They also cause high sickness rate, as well as debility, apathy and fatalism. Great effort have been made to combat disease, especially in those countries colonized by Europeans, but the real disorder is malnutrition, which in turn, depends on the social economic advancement of the African peoples. Backwardness and superstition are closely related to the frequently appalling conditions of hygiene, the inadequate and unbalanced diet, and the high pre-natal and infant mortality. A great increase in education is necessary to ameliorate these conditions.
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