The increasing populations across the world have serious implications on the health care system because they require additional resources to meet their healthcare needs. As approximately 3 billion people live in urban settings, about 1 billion of them live in slums. These statistics imply that about 30% of the urban population are in slums where basic services and facilities such as clean water, healthcare services, and electricity are hardly accessible. Moreover, the absence of food and a clean environment predispose the population to poor living conditions that threaten their lives in slums. Jorgenson and Rice assert that poverty is a significant social determinant of health in slums because the socioeconomic conditions of people who live in slums prevent them from accessing clean water, a clean environment, and essential nutrition. Hence, the populations in slums are susceptible to diseases because of their socio-economic conditions.
Since the populations that live in slums are 71% in Kenya and 99% in Ethiopia, it implies that these countries are experiencing considerable health burdens as their slums predispose people to numerous diseases that relate to poverty, hygiene, and sanitation. As the population of slum-dwellers doubles after every two decades in Africa, the health care system of Kenya and Ethiopia should brace for the challenging times ahead as the population of slum-dwellers would double and increase the demand for healthcare services exponentially. Poor living conditions in the slums increase the susceptibility of slum-dwellers to waterborne and infectious diseases such as typhoid, cholera, and dysentery, which subsequently increase the demand for healthcare services in Kenya. Likewise, in Ethiopia and other African countries, the trend of slum population threatens the sustainability of healthcare services. Hence, the increase in the slum population poses a great challenge to the health care system since healthcare services seem unsustainable.