Tanzania

This East African country was occupied by the Germans from 1886, becoming German East Africa, or Tanganyika, with the British occupying the offshore island of Zanzibar from 1890. During World War I, the Allies fought the Germans and at the end of the war, Tanganyika was administered by the British. It gained its independence in December 9, 1961 as the Republic of Tanganyika. In 1964 it merged with Zanzibar to form the Republic of Tanzania. The country has a population of 38,329,000 (2005), with 4.1 doctors and 85 nurses per 100,000 people.

The medical services in Tanganyika trace their origins to 1888 when Adrien Atiman, a West African, visited the area. A former slave, he had studied medicine in Malta, and started practicing in Tanganyika. However during the period of colonial rule by the Germans, the health services in Tanganyika remained extremely limited, with most hospital patients being either Europeans, wealthy Asians or the local elite. In Zanzibar, Arab physicians still used the works of the Arab surgeon Avicenna (980–1037), although the British did build a hospital there. During British colonial rule in Tanganyika, several hospitals were established in Dar es Salaam, but these did not cater for most of the local peoples. Indeed the European Hospital in Dar es Salaam had 22 beds for a European population of 158, while the Sewa Haji Hospital had 75 beds for a population of 18,300.

In 1949 the National Institute for Medical Research was established in Tanganyika. It still operates from Dar es Salaam and is the official medical research center for the country. After independence, many hospitals were opened. By the late 1960s there were district hospitals throughout the country. By the 1980s there were also many private hospitals and well-equipped mission hospitals. Even in spite of this improved healthcare, many Tanzanians use faith healers and herbal cures.

Many of the health problems in Tanganyika and Zanzibar during the colonial period were similar to those in many other parts of the world where poor hygiene and sanitation led to an increased prevalence of cholera, typhoid and tuberculosis. Hansen's disease, often known in Africa as leprosy, was also common with as many as 150,000 people suffering from it as late as the 1970s. There have also been problems with rabies, and a large increase in recent years of people suffering from HIV/AIDS. There has also been a rise in cancer rates, especially liver cancer for men, and also Kaposi's sarcoma, which has been associated with a rise in the number of HIV cases in the country. During the 1990s there have also been droughts, leading to malnutrition, especially of children, in many parts of the country.