Pre-Trip Information

 

The literacy rate is 63.2 percent. This percentage belies a gender differential -- whereas  73.7 percent of males are literate, only 53.3 percent of females can read and write.  Education in Gabon is compulsory for children between the ages of six and 16, and about 75 percent of this age group attends school. However, the education system is inadequate to serve the needs of all students. The country's major institution of higher learning is Omar Bongo University. Many students, however, go to France for a university education. All news media are owned and operated by the government.


Health and Welfare

The country's social welfare system, while deeply flawed, is one of the better developed systems in sub-Saharan Africa. It provides benefits to employed people for work injury, maternity, disability and old age. A family allowance law also offers benefits to employees with one or more children under the age of 16 years.

Gabon, however, remains plagued by poor health conditions. Diseases spread by insects and vermin are widespread. Many Gabonese have severe respiratory ailments, aggravated by the hot and humid climate. Provision of adequate health services and of maternal and child health programs is given top priority, perhaps in part because of the example set by the hospital that was maintained at Lambaréné by Albert Schweitzer.

Nonetheless, Gabon's infant mortality rate is only slightly below average -- at  52.65 deaths/1,000 live births -- for countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Life expectancy is about average for the area of sub-Saharan Africa at about 53.5 years of age (52.5 years for males and  54.57 years for females) according to recent estimates. The country as a whole has a relatively high doctor-to-population ratio, but there remains a severe shortage of medical personnel in rural areas.


Health and Social Challenges

Research results released in November 2000 by the Libreville Medical Centre revealed that Gabon faces a growing crisis of male impotence. According to the report, 25 percent of all adult men are now impotent in Gabon. While the report fails to identify the direct causes, it does note that high levels of alcohol and tobacco use, common in Gabon, are aggravating factors. The report concludes that the rise in divorce can be directly linked to this increase in impotence with grave social and economic consequences.

 

Meanwhile, the risk of infectious diseases in this country is very high.  Food or waterborne diseases include bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever; vectorborne diseases include malaria and chikungunya; water contact diseases include schistosomiasis; animal contact diseases include rabies. 

AIDS in Gabon is also a rapidly growing crisis. Whereas in 1998 the World Health Organization estimated 24,000 people in Gabon were being infected with HIV each year, 1999 figures estimate that the number had risen to 30,000. In a February 2001 report by the Gabonese Ministry of Public Health and Population, one Gabonese citizen is infected every three hours. The disease has reached catastrophic proportions. Whereas 1.8 percent of sexually active people 18 to 45 years old were infected in 1998, by the end of 2000, 7.6 percent of the same group are now infected.  A few years later, the number was raised to 8.1 percent.

A recent study even challenges the conventional wisdom that AIDS originated in Eastern Africa, asserting that it originated in Gabon, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. This study, led by a team from the University of Alabama, argues that AIDS has actually been around in these three countries for centuries, but it has only recently spread alarmingly. Whether or not this theory is valid or not, the problem in Gabon, some health workers argue, is that many people in rural areas believe that the disease is caused by evil spells. As a result, it is difficult to affect sexual behavior and other entrenched cultural norms.

Note: About  six  percent of GDP in this country is spent on health expenditures.