Public health costs of electricity shortage: a Ghanaian case study

Health of the population as much depends on health system infrastructure as it does on other factors. Electricity is an important part of a community’s infrastructure. Although the role of electricity in people’s lives has been continuously mentioned in various literatures, the magnitude of its impacts on public health has been mostly ignored. Electricity interruptions results in inefficient healthcare delivery and hinders goals aimed at improving the health of the population. There is no reference to energy in any of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); however, it has been suggested that “none of the MDGs can be met without major increases in the quality and quantity of energy services in developing countries” (UNDP, 2004). The purpose of this paper is to use Ghana’s case to demonstrate that electricity is an important determinant of health and that it should be included in the list of 150 WHO health indicator.