Africa in Data

The data of this page is collected from the official website of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the District Health Information System 2 (DHIS2) health information management system.

The dataset is freely available to copy, use, and redistribute for non-commercial purposes, only, provided that the authors are appropriately credited.

Download full dataset (.csv):

Africa stands as the second-largest and the second-most populous continent in the world. Nonetheless, it has the youngest population amongst all other continents. The median age of Africa was 19.7 in 2012, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Despite having a wide range of natural resources, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita, and the second-least wealthy by total wealth, behind Oceania. The reason is attributed to various factors including geography, climate, cold war, lack of democracy, corruption, and tribalism.

This portal is dedicated to gathering, analyzing and studying data from Africa. We aim to help different parties including policy-makers, researchers, economists, epidemiologists, and health officials understand the situation in Africa by raising the vulnerabilities of different countries.

In the maps below, countries across Africa have been compared in terms of total population, rural population, population density, life expectancy, and median age.

Total Population Rural Population Population Density

Life expectancy Median Age

Since Africa is the only continent to stretch from the northern to the southern temperate zones, It has abundant natural resources. However, it remains the poorest and least-developed amongst all other continents of the world, other than Antarctica. The various reasons include legacies of colonialism, lack of access to foreign capitals, corrupt governments that commit human rights violation, failed central planning, slave trade, and frequent tribal and military conflicts ranging from guerrilla warfare to gynecide. Malnutrition, inadequate water supply and sanitation, as well as poor health conditions play a major role in low total nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the continent.

The maps below compare the GDP per capita, and Gini Index of different African countries.

GDP per Capita Gini Index

Our mission is to ensure justice and equity. We are committed to gathering datasets from multiple sources, visualizing, and presenting them through this portal, to help different parties, especially researchers conduct studies and provide results on critical concerns regarding African countries.

Vector-Borne Disease

Malaria

Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease that causes symptoms such as headache, fever, cough, tiredness, vomiting, diarrhea, and in severe cases jaundice, seizure, coma, and death. The disease is pervasive in tropical and subtropical areas such as sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Approximately, 95% of Malaria cases and fatalities happen in sub-Saharan Africa. Generally, the rate of the disease has decreased from 2010 to 2014, but unfortunately, increased from 2015 to 2020. Due to increased healthcare cost, loss of ability to work, and adverse impact on tourism. Malaria has a significant negative effect on the economic development of the country and is commonly associated with poverty.

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Dengue Fever

Dengue fever is a vector-borne tropical disease that is caused by the dengue virus which spreads through several species of female mosquitoes of the Aedes genus, principally aedes aegypti. Typically, symptoms which begin three to fourteen days after infection, include high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle/joint pain, and skin rash and itching. In severe cases, the disease may develop into dengue hemorrhagic fever, where bleeding, blood plasma leakage, and low levels of platelets, or into dengue shock syndrome, resulting into dangerously low blood pressure. There is an approved vaccine for dengue fever, however, since 2018, it is mainly distributed among populations with high rate of prior infection. Since the second world war, dengue fever has become a global issue, and common among more than 120 countries. About 390 million people are infected with dengue fever each African year, half a million are hospitalized, and roughly, 40000 die. Unfortunately, the number of dengue fever cases has increased over the years in some countries.

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Malaria in Burundi

Burundi has experienced an increase in Malaria cases since 2012, and a a mild decrease in 2017. Malaria is one of the major causes of mortality in Burundi, especially for pregnant women and children under five years old.

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Malaria in Cameroon

Malaria is the most common endemic disease in Cameroon. Around 6million Malaria cases and 4000 deaths are reported in Cameroon, every year. The most vulnerable group are children under five years old which make up more than 32% of the total cases. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated Malaria in Cameroon and increased the number of cases and deaths.

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Malaria in Ghana

Although there is a high level of interventions and Insecticide-Treated bed-Nets (ITN) in Ghana, the number of Malaria cases, morbidity, and mortality remains rather high. Malaria is endemic in Ghana, and it accounts for 40% of all outpatients attendances. Most vulnerable groups are children under 5 years old and pregnant women.

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Water-Borne Disease

Cholera

Cholera is an acute bacterial infection caused by ingestion of food or water that is contaminated with Vibrio cholerae. The symptoms mainly include large watery diarrhea, vomiting, mustle cramps, and severe dehydration. if left untreated, Cholera can kill within several hours. Prevention methods of Cholera include sanitation, and access to clean water. Cholera vaccines that are taken by mouth provide fair protection for about six months. People who survive Cholera develop immunity for at least three years. Cholera has been widely eliminated from industrialized countries through implementing proper water and sewage system. However, it still remains a significnat cause of illness and mortality in many African countries.

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Respiratory Disease

COVID-19

Since its very first diagnosis in December 2019, in Wuhan, China, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread world wide causing an ongoing pandemic and infecting millions around the globe. Different countries have recorded the number of tests, infections, recoveries, and fatalities ever since. This section illustrates recorded information, as well as interesting results founded by our researchers for different countries.

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COVID-19 Sentiment

Our research group uses machine learning models, especially Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods to extract data from the social media content, particularly tweets to solve issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sentiment analysis and emotion analysis are two powerful NLP techniques that can help decision-makers inform policy. Below represents our results for vaccination hesitancy hotspots in Africa from an insightful intelligence from Twitter data.

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Sexually-Transmitted Disease

Mpox

The first known human case of Mpox (Monkeypox) was reported in 1970 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in a nine-month old baby. Since then Mpox has been endemic in a number of African countries, namely, Benin, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan. It was only after 2003 that Mpox was identified in non-African countries.

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Other Disease

Rotavirus

Rotavirus is one of the major causes of death in children under five years old. It is responsible for roughly one third of all severe diarrheal hospitalizations of infants and children. Once a child is infected with Rotavirus there is a two day incubation period before the symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and dehydration appear. Rotavirus vaccines are one of the most effective interventions that remarkably reduce the mortality rate. They also significantly lift the burden on healthcare systems. Yet, they are heavily neglected, especially in developing countries.

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