Mali, one of the world's poorest nations, is greatly affected by poverty, malnutrition, epidemics, and inadequate hygiene and sanitation. Mali's health and development indicators rank among the worst in the world, with little improvement over the last 20 years. Progress is impeded by Mali's poverty and by a lack of physicians. The 2012 conflict in northern Mali exacerbated difficulties in delivering health services to refugees living in the north. With a landlocked, agricultural-based economy, Mali is highly vulnerable to climate change. A catastrophic harvest in 2023 together with escalations in armed conflict have exacerbated food insecurity in Northern and Central Mali.

A new measure of expected human capital calculated for 195 countries from 1990 to 2016 and defined for each birth cohort as the expected years lived from age 20 to 64 years and adjusted for educational attainment, learning or education quality, and functional health status was published by The Lancet in September 2018. Mali had the fifth lowest level of expected human capital countries with 3 health, education, and learning-adjusted expected years lived between age 20 and 64 years. This was a notable improvement over 1990 when its score was 0, the lowest of all.

Health infrastructure Although Mali has its own health care, with a governmental constitution that advocates countrywide health, Mali is heavily dependent upon international development organizations and foreign missionary groups for much of its health care. In 2015, the health expenditure by the government was only 5.8% of GDP.

Hospitals

Medical facilities in Mali are very limited, especially outside of Bamako, and medicines are in short supply. In 2019, there were 1,478 medical facilities in Mali, including 18 government and university hospitals. The additional medical facilities included polyclinics, clinics, and health centers. The other facilities are small health centers and posts. The table below lists the hospitals, region, type, ownership, and coordinates:

+ Hospitals in MaliNameRegionTypeOwnershipCoordinatesRefCHUFrench: Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire or CHU CnosBamakoHospitalGovt.CHU Gabriel ToureBamakoHospitalGovt.CHU Point GBamakoHospitalGovt.Institut d’Ophtalmologie Tropicale de l’Afrique (IOTA) HopitalBamakoHospitalGovt.Mali Gavardo HopitalBamakoHospitalGovt.Mali HopitalBamakoHospitalGovt.Golden Life American HospitalBamakoHospitalPrivatePasteur PolyclinicBamakoPolyclinicPrivateGao HopitalGaoHospitalGovt.Fousseyni Daou HopitalKayesRegional HospitalGovt.Kati HopitalKoulikoroHospitalGovt.Sevare HopitalMoptiHospitalGovt.Somino Dolo HopitalMoptiHospitalGovt.Nianakoro Fomba HopitalSegouHospitalGovt.Segou Regional HopitalSegouRegional HospitalGovt.Sikasso HopitalSikassoHospitalGovt.Tombouctou HopitalTombouctouHospitalGovt.

Physician availability There are three major public hospitals in the greater Bamako region. However, Mali still lacks a great number of physicians, as there are only .08 physicians per 10 000 citizens. In 2009, there were only 729 physicians in the entire country of more than 10 million people.

Doctors Without Borders In Northern Mali, there are very little areas in which civilians could ask for medical assistance. Health authorities have proven to be unable to manage epidemics within the populations in northern Mali, and this gap has been filled by the Doctors Without Borders association, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Since the coming of the MSF, more than 40,000 children have been protected from malaria and improved regional hospitals. The struggle still remains in the fact that over 40% of people in some regions must walk 9 miles to the nearest health clinic. Much of northern Mali has been afflicted with conflict, resulting in many refugees.

In southern Mali, which is more peaceful, MSF has worked to improve hospital bed numbers and malaria vaccinations.

Governmental actions

In 2009 the government of Mali aided by the Chinese government began construction of a fourth in Missabougou quarter, Bamako, to be named "Hôpital du Mali".Malian leader lays foundation stone for 150-bed hospital . PANA Press. 2009-04-11. However, the government as invested minimally into health (2.9%), rendering most major projects unable to be carried out. Organizations like the Health Policy Project (HPP) have been pushing for more government resources for health. Furthermore, a study by the Infection Control Hospital Epidemiology (ICHE) has determined that help from the World Health Organization in the sanitation and health of Malians was feasible and effective.

Health policy systems Many African countries have been advocating the implementation of user fees regarding health care within the countries, which would charge citizens based on the health care they received.Johnson, Ari, Goss, Adeline, Beckerman, Jessica, and Castro, Arachu. "Hidden costs: The direct and indirect impact of user fees on access to malaria treatment and primary care in Mali." Social Science & Medicine 75.10 (2012) 1786-1792. There has been significant studies to show that such charging results in complicated health and social problems that could have severe consequences in gender equality, household powers, social status, and poverty. Fees also resulted in decreased services in utility and reduced women's health care in various areas such as decision making.

Health care Although Mali's constitution guarantees the right to proper health, only around 2.9% of the nation's GDP is invested into health care, resulting in the incidence of many disease being too high. Much of what little health care Mali has is focused on to Mali's capitol, Bamako, where around 4000 healthcare workers strive to keep 1.8 million people in good health. The rest of the country has less than 3500 healthcare workers in total, meaning that people living in rural areas of Mali receive minimal health care.

Recently, there has been several corporations that have developed in order to attempt to improve Mali's economic and health systems. The most notable of this is the FENASCOM, or the "Fédération Nationale des Associations de Santé Communautaire", which unites several communal associations (around 700 in total) at the national level and strive to sway Malian government's policies on health.

One study has shown that there are key problems regarding Mali's health system. First, the distribution of health care in Mali is greatly managed, resulting in a great use of resources. There are also signs that pharmaceutical policies are lacking in Mali, which contributes to the uneven medical drug distribution among Malian populations.

Sanitation In 2000, 62–65% of the population was estimated to have access to safe drinking water. 69% of the population had access to sanitation facilities of some kind. 8% were estimated to have access to modern sanitation facilities. 20% of the nation's villages and livestock watering holes had modern water facilities.Mali country profile. Library of Congress Federal Research Division (January 2005). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. In urban areas, it was revealed that almost 90% of all citizens had access to improved water.

Little more than a third of Mali had proper sanitation as defined by western standards. Also, the conditions of clean water has not improved much since the percentages in 2000 shown above. This means that 12 million people in Mali do not have access to adequate sanitation and 4 million people do not have access to safe drinking water. Unsafe water drinking and poor sanitation causes over 4,000 children under age 5 to die per year from diarrhea. WaterAid has actively been working in Mali to improve sanitation policies and drinking resources for Malians.

Regarding water development planning, research has shown that it is important to consult the women of Mali, as women are the predominant people gathering and using water. Hydrogeological research under the Peace Corps has shown that local women are the most reliable sources of information regarding water control. A village needed around 50,000 liters of water a day, and it was shown that two electronically powered pumps could provide this much water, while under traditional Malian wells (dug by hand), 64 were needed. Hand-dug wells also had poor quality and unreliable production of water, suggesting that electronic wells could reduce water problems.

Health status

Malaria and other arthropod-borne diseases are prevalent in Mali, as are a number of infectious diseases such as cholera, hepatitis, meningitis, Polio, rabies, malaria, and tuberculosis. Mali's population also suffers from a high rate of child malnutrition and a low rate of immunization for childhood diseases such as measles and polio.

There were an estimated 100,000 cases of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in 2010, and an estimated 1.5% of the adult population was afflicted with HIV/AIDS in 2007, among the lowest rates in Sub-Saharan Africa (see also HIV/AIDS in Africa).

The 2010 maternal mortality rate per 100,000 births was 830. This compares with 880 in 2005 and 1200 in 1990. The under 5 mortality rate, per 1,000 births was 194 and the neonatal mortality as a percentage of under 5's mortality was 26. In Mali there were 3 midwives per 1,000 live births and the lifetime risk of maternal death was 1 in 22..

Life expectancies Infant and juvenile mortality rates:. up to 1 year: 80 deaths/1,000 live births. This has decreased significantly over the years, by a percentage of around 50% over the last 20 years.up to 5 years:115 deaths/1,000 children in 2015 (11.5% experience death in their first 5 years). This places Mali at the 8th place in terms of most mortality rates for children under 5. This number has been decreasing steadily, from 132 in 2011, 127 in 2012, 123 in 2013, and 118 in 2014, then 115 currently.

Life expectancy at birth: total population: 54.55 years (2013 est.) male: 52.75 years (2013 est.) female: 56.41 years (2013 est.)

Prevalent diseases The degree of risk for contracting major infections diseases is very high in Mali. Some of the most common food or waterborne diseases include diarrhea (bacterial and protozoal), hepatitis A, and typhoid fever, all of which pose serious threats to the communities. Malaria and dengue fever is also very common.

HIV/AIDS – adult prevalence rate: 0.9% (2012.)

HIV/AIDS – people living with HIV/AIDS: 100,000 (2012.)

HIV/AIDS – deaths: 5,800 (2007 est.)

Vaccines: Over 89% of Mali's citizens have had basic immunization coverage. However, many children do not receive proper immunization from measles and polio.

Malaria: Among all diseases, malaria is the primary cause of death in Mali, especially for children who are under 5 years old. The prevalence of malaria among children under five years of age was 36% as of 2015. Plasmodium falciparum is the main cause of infection. The entire population of Mali is at risk for malaria, although transmission varies across the country's five geo-climatic zones. The disease is endemic in the central and southern regions where more than 90% of the population lives and epidemic in the north. Internally displaced persons migrating from the north are especially at risk given their low immunity to infection.