Image credit: Ardent Creative, for the Wellcome Trust funded Art of Ageing Competition, The Health Research Unit Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Three years in the making, this Collection spans back to a workshop in Blantyre, June 2022 where the Africa Multimorbidity Alliance was formed as a platform to support Africa-led family-centred research and care across the continent.
The Collection brings together original research both from within and beyond the Alliance to shine a light on Africa’s fast-growing emerging multimorbidity crisis, which we argue in the editorial blog has been hidden in plain sight, obfuscated by decades, even centuries of global health organised around single diseases. This has blinded health systems to the syndemic interactions of persisting infectious diseases, rapidly rising non-communicable diseases, and the complex health and social burdens these jointly engender. Africa’s multimorbidity crisis is not simply a challenge for, but also a profound challenge to, global health.
The Collection features 12 research organised four themes: expanding the multimorbidity concept (featuring a new conceptual model); multimorbidity epidemiology; the burden of treatment and its inaccessibility; and health systems and service integration. Together, these mark a decisive, multidisciplinary push to conceptualise, make visible, and advocate for urgent attention to address among Africa’s fastest growing health challenges.
For any enquires about the Collection, or if you are interested in joining the Africa Multimorbidity Alliance, please reach out to flimbani@mlw.mw or justin.dixon@lshtm.ac.uk
