Prioritising access to pain relief across Africa
As we celebrate World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, the African Palliative Care Association continues to prioritise support towards increasing access to pain relief services. This message resonates with our regional priorities.
Dr Katherine Pettus, Senior Advocacy and Partnerships Director, IAHPC. Presentation recorded for the APCA Congress 2025.
About the presentation
Millions of people across Africa live and die with pain that could be relieved. Essential medicines such as oral morphine are inexpensive and on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, yet they remain out of reach for most patients who need them. In this talk, Dr Pettus looks at why that gap persists and what governments, health workers and civil society can do to close it.
- Medicines that can harm or heal. Controlled medicines are both a potential poison and a cure. Regulation and public fear have focused almost entirely on the risk of misuse, rather than on the relief these medicines bring to patients.
- Stigma inside health systems. Everyday practices that treat pain medicines as dangerous reinforce fear among clinicians and patients alike. Education and research build the confidence to prescribe safely.
- Balanced regulation. Policies should be developed with health professionals, patients, policymakers, ethicists, faith leaders and the private sector, so that they prevent misuse without blocking medical access.
- Recent international progress. New WHO guidance on balanced national controlled-medicines policies gives countries a practical basis for reviewing their laws.
- A way forward for Africa. Building coalitions that bring palliative care alongside legal, economic and ethical expertise, and updating national drug legislation in line with WHO guidance.
Learn more about APCA's work on advocacy for access to palliative care in Africa.
