Healthier futures for our male children

ON AVERAGE, a 10-year-old is six times more likely to die before the age of 24 in sub-Saharan Africa than in northern America and Europe.

The World Health Organization (WHO) statistic makes me shudder. We are marking both Youth Month and Men’s Health Month. We must recommit ourselves to helping our youth develop a better future.

The victims of road traffic accidents, drowning and violence are overwhelmingly our boys and young men. More than three-quarters of the teens who drown globally are boys. As the WHO points out, the solution is as straightforward as teaching our youth to swim.

Teens are also fighting the temptation trio – drink, drugs and unprotected sexual activity. The WHO reminds us: “Prevalence of heavy episodic drinking among adolescents aged 15 to 19 years was 13.5% in 2015, with males most at risk.” Dagga (cannabis) is the most widely used psychoactive drug among young people, says the WHO.

It warns that alcohol and drug use by children and teens can affect their brains, leading to “behavioural, emotional, social and academic problems in later life”.

Many young men have become more sedentary, parked in front of computers and video games, with fast foods part of the everyday diet. The lifestyle risks obesity and its associated with chronic diseases.

Globally, 42% of boys are bullied, according to the WHO. This can threaten mental health and lives. It can be used to entrench social stereotypes caused by concealed fears – jeering at a teenage boy as “girly”, for example, because he feels he should go to a clinic for medical help.

Delay in accessing health care could contribute to diarrhoea, meningitis and lower respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia which is among the WHO’s top five causes of adolescent death in Africa’s low and middle-income countries.

Statistics SA estimates that boys born in the Western Cape between 2016 and this year, for instance, could expect to live 65.7 years, and girls 71.1 years. Boys born in the Free State could expect to live 54.6 years, more than a decade less. Girls born there would expect to live 61.3 years.

We should focus on improving the life expectancy of our children overall.

The Innovative Pharmaceutical Association of South Africa (Ipasa) members support developing solutions in the public and private health-care sectors to address our country’s most pressing health-care challenges.

More than half of South African men who die of natural causes die of TB. They tend to shy from asking for medical help. Men are significantly less likely to go for an HIV test or HIV/ Aids treatment. Yet some diseases are more likely to affect men, ranging from skin cancer to testicular cancer. Our young men’s fears and embarrassment in medical settings load the dice against them. We must find ways to destigmatise medical consultations.

One of our most vital tools is parents who focus on good health practices, leading by example with factors such as eating healthily and seeking medical advice promptly.

Our school curriculum could be leveraged to educate learners about caring better for their health. Another hopeful tool is Ipasa’s contribution to developing innovative health care, as well as helping communities through members’ social investment programmes.

Better health for our sons will give them better lives, a better quality of life and greater chances of living the adult lives they dream of.