southern sudan health system assessment - Health Systems 20/20

4.2 HEALTH STATUS
By 1991, health care in Southern Sudan had all but disintegrated. The civil war had destroyed virtually all
medical facilities except those that the SPLA rebuilt to treat their own wounded and the hospital in the
three major garrison towns controlled by government forces (Malakal, Wau, and Juba). Life expectancy,
which stood at 39 years in 1960, had by 2005 increased to 57 years in all Sudan but only 42 years in the
south (in 2003). As war and population movements increased the ratio of adult women to men in
Southern Sudan (to just over 2.1), women took on a greater role in the economic survival of families
and communities.
Health services in Southern Sudan remained extremely weak during and after the war, causing the health
status of the population to plummet to one of the poorest globally (see Table 2): the maternal mortality
ratio is estimated at 2,037/100,000, the infant mortality rate at 150/1,000, the child mortality rate at
250/1,000, and the fertility rate at 6.7. These figures are appreciably less than Sudan’s and sub-Saharan
African countries’ averages. Diseases that are controlled elsewhere in the world and malnutrition are
endemic in Southern Sudan.
TABLE 2: KEY HEALTH INDICATORS FOR SOUTHERN SUDAN, SUDAN AND SUB-SAHARAN
AFRICA
Southern Sudan Sudan Sub-Sahara Africa (avg)
Total population (million) Estimates range from 8 38 15
to 12 million
Life expectancy at birth (years) 42* 57 48.45
Physicians (per 100,000 2 2 2
population)
DPT3 coverage 15% 78% 67%**
Under 5 mortality rate (per 250 90 151
1,000)
Infant mortality rate (per 150 62 93
1,000)
Children under 5 sleeping