Health Coverage Must Not Ignore Africa’s Elderly
As life expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa increases steadily, health-care systems in many countries are failing to keep up with the needs of older patients. To ensure that living longer is not a prescription for economic or personal misery, governments must work to extend services to their oldest constituents.
DAR ES SALAAM – My grandmother is 76, and my grandfather is 83. They have lived fruitful lives together, cultivating crops and grazing cattle in a remote village in the hills of southwest Uganda. But whenever I think of them, I am more in awe of their good health than their hard work.