Only 17% of Africa’s population has access to essential oral health care services – WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) says access to essential oral health care services remains a major challenge in Africa, with only 17% of the regional population having access. Acting WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu made the disclosure  Wednesday in his statement to mark this year’s World Oral Health Day. The World Oral […]

The World Health Organization (WHO) says access to essential oral health care services remains a major challenge in Africa, with only 17% of the regional population having access.

Acting WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu made the disclosure  Wednesday in his statement to mark this year’s World Oral Health Day. The World Oral Health Day is  observed annually on 20 March.

He said progress in disease prevention is also slow, including fluoride use and sugar reduction efforts.

He said despite these advances, the African Region lags behind key oral health indicators, noting  that the oral health workforce also remains inadequate.

He said, “In 2022, the region had 56 772 oral health workers, including dentists, dental assistants and therapists (0.37 per 10 000 population) – far below the required 158 916 oral health workers (1.33 per 10 000 population) needed to meet the demand.”

Dr Ihekweazu explained that oral diseases such as dental caries, gum disease and tooth loss affected 42% of the WHO African Region’s population in 2021.

He also said the region also has the highest number of noma cases, a rapidly progressing, non-contagious gangrenous disease of the mouth that primarily affects young children.

“ If left untreated, noma has a high fatality rate, and survivors often suffer from life-long impairments, disfigurement, stigma and discrimination,” he stated.

He said at the global level, the Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly (WHA74) in 2021 recognized oral health as a core part of the NCD agenda and Universal Health Coverage (UHC). This, he said  led to the endorsement of the Global Strategy on Oral Health (WHA75) and the Global Oral Health Action Plan 2023–2030 (WHA76), which includes a monitoring framework.

He further said with the support of partners like Hilfsaktion Noma e.V. and the Borrow Foundation, as well as WHO Collaborating Centres, several countries in the region have taken concrete action:

Lesotho, Nigeria and Sierra Leone developed oral health policy documents, he added.

The Acting WHO regional director said to accelerate the implementation of the Global Oral Health Action Plan, WHO convened its first-ever Global Oral Health Meeting in Thailand (November 2024).

He said that delegates developed national roadmaps to advance oral health efforts, and a regional framework for accelerating implementation will be discussed at the Seventy-fifth Regional Committee for Africa later this year, adding, “Now is the time to act. We have the strategy – now we must implement it.”

He said doing so required the following: -Engaging multisectoral stakeholders.

-Securing funding through innovative financing mechanisms, such as allocating health tax revenue to oral health.

-Integrating oral health services into national benefits packages.

-Using a people-centred approach to implementation.

-Let’s work together for better oral health outcomes! Together, we can go further!