Palliative Care, Suffering, Death Trajectory: A View of End-of-Life Care (EOL) Related Issues in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)

Palliative care in the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region despite some progress made since the first hospice was opened in Zimbabwe in 1979, still lags far behind that of countries with developed economies, and relatively suffers from not being wholly included into mainstream public health service delivery in SSA. The situation is made worse due to relatively poor and pervasive socio-politico-economic factors and the challenge of the changing and increasing non-communicable disease epidemiology in SSA countries. This situation results in a tension between scarce resources and service needs/provision which prevails in a good number of SSA countries. In large part the situation where palliative care, end of life and the death trajectory converge in SSA countries currently portrays one of scarcity of resources and suffering for those ill SSA patients who need the services. This article is an overview of the current situation as pertains to palliative care services in the SSA region and some of the factors that contribute to or perpetuate the current state of palliative care delivery in SSA countries.