The Changing Medical Geography of Africa

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the historical and contemporary scholarship on medical geography of Africa with emphasis on Ghana. Medical geography research on Africa has traditionally focused on disease ecology and geography of health care, increasingly linking health with its political and economic context. More recent studies typically apply more sophisticated techniques, including genotyping and spatial analysis, in an effort to model disease control and spread as well geographic access to health. African medical geography has a solid foundation but much more needs to be done. For the future, we argue that advanced analytical approaches such as multi-level modeling are needed to provide a deeper understanding of the pressing health issues confronting the continent.