Nuclear Medicine Practice in Africa

Abstract

Nuclear medicine has progressed and assumed full recognition as a separate specialty in medical practice. This is because of the simplicity and low morbidity of its methods, the wealth of the physiological and anatomical information attainable in its applications, the introduction of new and better radiopharmaceuticals and development of improved radioisotopic imaging devices.. However, this success has not been matched by the level of awareness of clinicians and other medical personnel as to the worth and scope of the various investigations especially in developing countries in Africa. The data base and on-line fact sheets of sixteen African countries on nuclear medicine, were evaluated and analyzed. Essential nuclear medicine requirements like number of nuclear medicine centres, the number of essential personnel and the imaging and therapeutic devices, were compared in relation to the United Nations 2003 population estimates of the countries and against the background of worldwide surveys of standard nuclear medicine requirements in developed countries. There was regional stratification into countries with well developed, and those with less developed nuclear medicine services. Services attainable in the former are comparable with those available in developed countries. Similar variations were observed in the type and quality of diagnostic and therapeutic services. available in the countries studied. However, all the countries showed similar projections on their national strategic plans for future development of nuclear medicine services.
This paper discusses the levels of nuclear medicine procedures available in Africa, their problems, projected areas of further improvement and finally suggests ways of promoting nuclear medicine services, especially in those countries with less developed facilities..