The general health status is very low compared with other LDCs. Preventable infectious diseases and nutritional deficiencies are pronounced.
Life expectancy is low, as is adult literacy.
Since 1992, the country has been undergoing major political and economic transition from a command to a market-based economy. The HSD process has produced good overall results for health development in general and for TB control in particular. It has enabled Ethiopia to establish an increasingly effective TB control programme that is integrated with general health delivery and that reaches to the periphery. Health sector reform has enabled effective international partnerships for TB control. For example, a 1996 national strategy for combined TB and Leprosy control was created jointly by the Government and major donors in order to help with donor coordination.