By Dr. Sylvester Ikhisemojie
Health poverty refers to a situation where individuals or communities lack access to adequate healthcare services, medications, and resources necessary to maintain good health and well-being. This form of poverty is characterised not just by financial constraints, but by a complex interplay of social, economic, and environmental factors that inhibit individuals from achieving optimal health outcomes. Health poverty can manifest in various forms, from limited access to basic medical care to inadequate nutrition, poor sanitation, and unsafe living conditions. At the heart of health poverty lies the fundamental right of every individual to access quality healthcare services without the burden of financial hardship. In many parts of the world, particularly in low-income countries and marginalised communities, this right is often denied or severely restricted due to systemic inequalities, lack of infrastructure, and limited resources. As a result, individuals living in health poverty face heightened risks of preventable diseases, disabilities, and premature death. The recent outbreak of cholera in Lagos and in several other states,around the country remains the most comprehensive reminder yet about the reality of this depressing situation.
One of the key indicators of health poverty is the prevalence of infectious diseases and conditions that are largely preventable through vaccination, sanitation, and health education. Diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, pneumonia, and diarrheal illnesses disproportionately affect populations living in poverty due to inadequate access to healthcare facilities, lack of clean water, and barriers to essential medications. These conditions not only impact individual health but also contribute to the perpetuation of poverty cycles within communities. Health poverty is a concept that goes beyond income poverty and refers to a state of inadequate health resources, including limited access to health care facilities as we see in much of the country whether in the urban areas or in the rural communities. Such limitation to health care services is certainly not the fault of the people but essentially a failure of effective governance. In addition to this is a specter of poor health literacy. Inadequate access to proper health care and poor literacy are both fundamental consequences of poor education. When poverty, ignorance and disease combine together, then there is definitely a situation created that leads to inadequate health knowledge. A situation like this in an urban sprawl is certainly a recipe for an unmitigated health catastrophe.
As it happens very unfortunately, we see evidence of these in recurrent cycles of national and sub national outbreaks of infectious diseases ranging from cholera to meningitis and including diseases like Lassa fever and yellow fever. Limited health-related skills Is unfortunately associated with inadequate education. This in turn is subsumed in a surrounding network of inadequate social support. Organised social support should come from the government, but nothing in that regard has been the priority of any government in Nigeria and people have been forced to depend for such support from their families. But with increasing economic pressures on practically everyone, such family support systems are beginning to weaken. The consequences are everywhere around the country, such that even in highbrow areas of Lekki, Victoria Island and GRA, Ikeja all in Lagos as well as Gwarinpa, Apoquarters, among others in the federal capital territory, some of these basic necessities areeither missing or inadequate. In Lekki, for example, there is absolute scarcity of safe drinking water delivered to homes through public pipes. Poor environmental conditionsprevail in different ways, therefore, be it in Ijora Badia or Magodo. In virtually all of these places, individuals are forced to depend on personal or community developed infrastructure. Such commitments make the people more prone to health poverty.
Inadequate healthcare financing results whether it is based on individual commitment or by the government. But the bottom line is that there is inadequate overall Investment in healthcare infrastructure to the point that there are too few of them, and too inadequate for our teaming population. As we saw a couple of months ago, when discussing period poverty, we saw how poor women and young girls who are menstruating are not able to afford proper sanitary wares to keep themselves safe. To that extent, they become prone to a wide range of genital infections. The same is true of health poverty. For some people who even have some measure of insight into what they are required to do, personal investment in adequate healthcare provision means that they have to forgo some other necessities. It is particularly crushing on families when one member is seriously ill and has to be hospitalised. In that situation, all forms of commercial activity virtually cease for the rest of the family, and sometimes even the children at home are unable to go to school for the duration of the person’s illness. Health poverty, therefore, can people at a higher risk of suffering immense pressures that place them at risk for developing mental health issues. Other problems can also result, such as we will discuss below.
