ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the health status of Sub-Saharan Africa focusing on infectious and parasitic diseases, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, famine, and political instability. Its contention is that Africa is stuck in the second stage of the demographic transition (high birth rate, low death rate) and the first stage of the epidemiological transition (deaths related to pestilence, famine, and war). Africa's lack of sustainable development is attributed to ineffective governmental policy and leadership. The prognosis is that the health and well-being of Africa's most vulnerable population, women and children, will improve when government shifts its attention from external funding and affairs to internal and concentrates on retaining Africa's 'talented tenth'; that the 'brain drain' and political instability has robbed Africa of its most talented young people, medical and science professionals, who are needed to provide primary care and development to a region with a high mortality rate, a low life expectancy, and a low per capita income.
