Dear Colleagues,

We are organizing a Special Issue focusing on universal health coverage (UHC) in Sub-Saharan Africa in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH). This Special Issue focuses on three main areas: progress made over the past three years (2016–2018, may include first half of 2019) by Sub-Saharan African countries towards UHC; challenges faced in achieving UHC; and prospects of achieving UHC by 2030. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines UHC as a state where all individuals and communities receive the health services they need, without suffering financial hardship. UHC covers the full continuum of care from health promotion to disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care. In this Special Issue, we shall consider any article dealing with UHC, but will have special focus on the following three thematic areas:

• Progress towards universal health coverage;
• Challenges towards universal health coverage; and
• Prospects towards universal health coverage by 2030.

Articles should focus on the level and equity of coverage around the 16 essential services in the four categories identified by the World Health Organization as listed below:

• Reproductive, maternal, newborn, child health and nutrition:
  • Family planning
  • Antenatal and delivery care
  • Full child immunization
  • Health-seeking behavior for pneumonia
• Infectious diseases
  • Tuberculosis treatment
  • HIV antiretroviral treatment
  • Hepatitis treatment
  • Use of insecticide-treated bed nets for malaria prevention
  • Adequate sanitation
• Noncommunicable diseases
  • Prevention and treatment of raised blood pressure
  • Prevention and treatment of raised blood sugar
  • Cervical cancer screening
  • Tobacco (non-)smoking
• Health service capacity and access
  • Basic hospital access
  • Health worker density
  • Access to essential medicines
  • Health security: compliance with the international health regulations

Dr. Godfrey Biemba
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Universal health coverage
• Healthcare financing
• Healthcare access
• Agenda 2030