ABSTRACT
Prospects for the improvement in the health status of Ethiopians from a political economic and ecological perspective are mixed. The health problems of Ethiopian pastoralists have traditionally been neglected because of their politically weak position and the difficulty of administrating health services in sparsely populated lowlands to seasonally moving herders. Three population groups have been relatively neglected in health legislation and programs in the past, namely the elderly, high-risk occupational groups, and pastoralists. Demographic and epidemiological transitions are resulting in a growing population of elderly people and in concomitant increases in the prevalence of chronic noncommunicable diseases. Greater empowerment of communities in decision making is clearly needed since both the amount and control of available resources are instrumental in health development. The ecological web of individual diseases, characterized by tolerance, mutualism, and competition among organisms and actors, synergistic effects, feedbacks, and the evolution of new disease organisms and of human behavior changes not only over time but also in space.
