Mobile pastoralists in Africa: a blind spot in global health surveillance

Wild, H; Ali, Seid; Bonfoh, Bassirou; Tschopp, Rea; Barry, Michèle; Zinsstag, Jakob

doi:10.1111/tmi.13479

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The size of nomadic, displaced, and migrant populations is dynamic and can be exacerbated by conflicts, climate shocks, food shortages, natural calamities, and loss of income. This in turn can increase the number of children who are missed by immunization services as well as household surveys designed to measure immunization coverage [20].…”

Section: Who Are Zero-dose Children and What Barriers Do They Face?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Reaching Zero-Dose Children Holds the Key to Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Hogan

Gupta

2023

Vaccines

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Immunization has one of the highest coverage levels of any health intervention, yet there remain zero-dose children, defined as those who do not receive any routine immunizations. There were 18.2 million zero-dose children in 2021, and as they accounted for over 70% of all underimmunized children, reaching zero-dose children will be essential to meeting ambitious immunization coverage targets by 2030. While certain geographic locations, such as urban slum, remote rural, and conflict-affected settings, may place a child at higher risk of being zero-dose, zero-dose children are found in many places, and understanding the social, political, and economic barriers they face will be key to designing sustainable programs to reach them. This includes gender-related barriers to immunization and, in some countries, barriers related to ethnicity and religion, as well as the unique challenges associated with reaching nomadic, displaced, or migrant populations. Zero-dose children and their families face multiple deprivations related to wealth, education, water and sanitation, nutrition, and access to other health services, and they account for one-third of all child deaths in low- and middle-income countries. Reaching zero-dose children and missed communities is therefore critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals commitment to “leave no one behind”.

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Section: Who Are Zero-dose Children and What Barriers Do They Face?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Reaching Zero-Dose Children Holds the Key to Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Hogan

Gupta

2023

Vaccines

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“…Nomadism is defined as the periodic migration of people with their herds of animals searching for pasture and water, dispersed over time (seasons) and space 3. Nomads are generally classified as hunters, gatherers and pastoralists 4. Hunters and gatherers, such as the Kalahari Bushmen, predominantly live in the equatorial rainforests.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are an estimated 50 million nomadic pastoralists in SSA with little data on healthcare access and utilisation, especially on cancer care 7–9. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Eastern Africa block has attempted to map data on numbers and tribes identifying as pastoralists (table 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 3 Nomads are generally classified as hunters, gatherers and pastoralists. 4 Hunters and gatherers, such as the Kalahari Bushmen, predominantly live in the equatorial rainforests. Pastoralists are subdivided into transhumans, who regularly migrate between two grazing areas along well-defined routes, and those whose economy is based purely on migration and livestock keeping.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are an estimated 50 million nomadic pastoralists in SSA with little data on healthcare access and utilisation, especially on cancer care. [7][8][9] The Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Eastern Africa block has attempted to map data on numbers and tribes identifying as pastoralists (table 1). They include Afar in Djibouti, Tigre in Eretria, Bodi in Ethiopia, Borana and Gabra in Kenya, Somali in Somalia, Dinka in South Sudan, Ahmada in Sudan and Bahima in Uganda.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Neglected cancer care needs among the nomadic pastoralist communities in sub-Saharan Africa: a call to action

Abdihamid,

Rubagumya,

Vanderpuye

et al. 2024

BMJ Glob Health

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Leaving no one behind: targeting mobile and migrant populations with health interventions for disease elimination—a descriptive systematic review

Adams

Sutherland

Eckert

et al. 2022

BMC Med

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Background Mobile and migrant populations (MMPs) pose a unique challenge to disease elimination campaigns as they are often hard to survey and reach with treatment. While some elimination efforts have had success reaching MMPs, other campaigns are struggling to do so, which may be affecting progress towards disease control and elimination. Therefore, this paper reviews the literature on elimination campaigns targeting MMPs across a selection of elimination diseases—neglected tropical diseases, malaria, trypanosomiasis, polio, smallpox, and rinderpest. Methods Through a systematic review process following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a three-person review team identified papers from databases, conference records, and citation searches using inclusion/exclusion criteria. Papers were divided into three key outcome domains during the synthetization process: (1) MMP movement patterns in East Africa including reasons for movement and consequences in terms of health outcomes and healthcare access; (2) MMP contribution to the transmission of disease across all geographies; (3) surveillance methods and treatment interventions used to implement programming in MMPs across all geographies. Experts in the field also provided supplemental information and gray literature to support this review. Results The review identified 103 records which were descriptively analyzed using the outcome domains. The results indicate that in East Africa, there are various motivations for migration from economic opportunity to political unrest to natural disasters. Regardless of motivation, mobile lifestyles affect health service access such that MMPs in East Africa report barriers in accessing healthcare and have limited health knowledge. Often lower service delivery to these populations has resulted in higher disease prevalence. A minority of articles suggest MMPs do not pose challenges to reaching disease control and elimination thresholds. Finally, the literature highlighted surveillance methods (e.g., using satellite imagery or mobile phone data to track movement, participatory mapping, snowball sampling) and intervention strategies (e.g., integration with animal health campaigns, cross-border coordination, alternative mass drug administration [MDA] methods) to implement health interventions in MMPs. Conclusions Ultimately, the literature reviewed here can inform programmatic decisions as the community attempts to reach these never treated populations. Systematic review registration The protocol for this manuscript was registered with the International Prospective Registry of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) (No. CRD42021214743),

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Mobile pastoralists in Africa: a blind spot in global health surveillance

Cited by 3 publications

References 26 publications

Why Reaching Zero-Dose Children Holds the Key to Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Why Reaching Zero-Dose Children Holds the Key to Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Neglected cancer care needs among the nomadic pastoralist communities in sub-Saharan Africa: a call to action

Leaving no one behind: targeting mobile and migrant populations with health interventions for disease elimination—a descriptive systematic review

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