Global Health In Madagascar

This paper will step out of the comfort of the first world American lifestyle and look beyond to the health and social issues around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) is the leading stakeholder in advancing the awareness and support on global health issues along with the United Nations (UN) and other governmental and nongovernmental agencies. Only once the issues of these vulnerable people are identified can these organizations move forward in addressing and prioritizing the rapidly evolving global health agenda. The Millennium Development Goals will be defined briefly, however, since their goal completion date has ended, a future look at follow on program, Sustainable Development Goals seems the best place

“Without a lifespan view of women’s health… we are unlikely to be successful in advancing women’s health” (Woods 2009, pg. 400). A Global Health Imperative (2009) by author Nancy Fugate Woods explains the issues about health status and opportunities for the health of girl-children world-wide, which includes sex and gender disparities. Girl and women’s health is important, but just not as important as men’s health. Woods gives example of women’s health issues that are extremely serious. “Health issues or problems that occur predominantly in women are breast cancer and menopause” (Woods 2009, pg. 400). Women all over the world have the risk of getting breast cancer, HIV and Aids. Women that are affected by these diseases in some countries may

Black R E., Cousens S., Johnson, H. L., Lawn, J. E., Rudan, I., Bassani, D. G., Jha, P., Campbell, H., Walker, C.F, and Cibulskis, R (2010) Global, regional and national causes of child mortality; a systematic analysis. Lancet 375 (9730); 1969-1987.

On March 21st, 1998, I was born as a premature baby, who looked extremely weak and was experienced shortness of breath. My parents were concerned as I was coughing my lungs out day in, and day out. However, the doctors were not too concerned as my asthma was typically seen in premature babies, and assumed it would be temporary and would leave overtime. Nonetheless, these predictions were inaccurate. As time slowly progressed my asthma began to get worse. I was having trouble breathing and, was constantly grasping for air.

With the world becoming increasingly focused on global health there are elements that must be addressed in order to effectively analyze a healthcare system. There are instances in which healthcare systems are influenced by both domestic policy as well as international policy. The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) is an international development agenda agreed upon by 189 countries worldwide focused on addressing the most urgent global development (Skolnik, 2012). By agreeing to this agenda, countries will strive to reach improved measures of health outcomes. One area which would provide the greatest benefit is in addressing health disparity in the least economically developed regions of the world. The establishment of such goals will ensure that countries who are affected by health disparity have the appropriate forum from which they can address these issues from. Data collected from said health outcomes can help to identify if countries are on track to meet these established goals. The information may also prove valuable in highlighting inefficiencies within the system of care could impact both cost of care and patient outcomes (Skolnik, 2012).

Liu, Li et al. “Global, regional, and national causes of child mortality in 2000–13, with

Figure 218; Source: World Health Organization 2013 virtually universal and there is no difference in the occurrence of illness between developed and developing

This paper examines the first section of the Country Health Profile that assesses the disease burden of the chosen country by providing a brief overview of the country, describes the major health issues in the country, the leading cause of deaths, health problems that cause the most disability, the risk factors that drive the most death and disability, and some examples of health problems that are becoming more or less prevalent over time. The chosen country for this paper is Chad. Chad is a landlocked country in northern Central Africa that occupies an area of 1,284,000 km² and has a population of 14.1 million people (The World Bank, 2015). The landscape of the country varies, extensive arid plains in the center, a desert in the north, mountains

This prevailing impact prevents people from having the means to safeguard their health by regularly follow up with primary care for disease prevention. One study analyzed the conservation and development of Madagascar in the past thirty years. The research utilized data collected from online databases and government website to run a tracking progress report on eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The first six of the goals ties directly to the Human Development Index that covers issues of poverty, gender equality, maternal health, education, child mortality, and malaria disease. For instance, Madagascar was regarded as ranking number one in the world for having large portion of working force still living in poverty. Health outlook on Malaria was concerning as well, ranking 33rd out of the 188 countries in prevalence rate. The interpreting result on these six issues shows either slow progress or no improvement comparing to the rest of the developing nations (“Madagascar 30

Madagascar is known for being like no other land; the island is roughly the size of Texas of France to give a more definite scene of what it is like. Madagascar is also home to more than 250,000 species of which 70 percent of them are found nowhere else on the globe but then in Madagascar, in other words a lot of things one can see on the land cannot be seen anywhere else. About 5.07% of the land is arable land which means that permanent crops has the percentage of 1.03% and other crops that the land is made up of uses 93.9% of crops. (Henevald & Craig, 1995 ) Madagascar is made up of many different resources as well. The first being graphite which is a gray crystalline form of carbon that occurs as a mineral in some rocks and can be made from coke. It is also used as a solid lubricant when it comes to pencils and as a moderator in nuclear reactors. Chromite, coal, bauxite, salt quartz, tar sands, semiprecious stones, mica which is a shiny silicate mineral with a layered structure, found as a minute scales in granite and in other rocks as well or as crystals Now a days it can be used as a thermal or electrical insulator. Fish and hydropower as known resources as Madagascar as well.

Madagascar is still very much a developing country with the average Malagasy (term for a resident in Madagascar) making only one US dollar per day. Even though Madagascar achieved full independence in 1960 it is still ran today as if it were a colony. While under kleptocratic rule, the dictator Didier Ratsiraka stole millions of dollars. Which in turn led to a decline in foreign investors, it discouraged private sector development, and discredited the governments trustworthiness. This country is based on natural resource extraction and economies like this or much more prone to kleptocracy. When the president Marc Ravalomanana came to in 2002 he pushed for economic reform and tried to bring foreign investors back to the country while also keeping natural resource extraction an important role in building the economy. These efforts received much praise from foreign donors but towards the end of his presidency he was confronted by Adry Rajoelina who stated he was “likely to disturb peace and security”. Ravalomanana was then forced to resign due to

Comparing two countries with a similar background, where both countries have been colonized at some point in time by another country that is technologically advanced, it leaves me with a question. Why then is one country more stable in its Health status whilst the other is struggling?.This document will focus on the comparison of Australia, a developed country with a good health system and South Africa a developing country that needs more attention in public health interventions.

Since its conception in 1948, the WHO has consistently swayed between two differing philosophies of public health; the vertical and horizontal methods . The vertical method which dominated the initial years of the WHO focuses on identifying and policing the one disease which was deemed the most damaging to social, political, and economic systems. This analysis of disease is based in statistics. As such, the effect of a public health program can be clearly monitored. If there is a positive response, the numbers will reflect so and vice-a-versa. In reducing disease to statistics there is a removal the individual, culture, or social influence.

The country of Singapore provides universal healthcare to all their citizens. Aside from providing universal healthcare, Singapore also offers many different medical subsidies and schemes to help make healthcare affordable to all (Ministry of Health (MOH) Singapore, 2012). According to the MOH (2012), the reason why there are multiple layers of financing for healthcare is to ensure that no citizen is denied access to basic healthcare services because of financial reasons. The government currently covers about 80% of the total bill should one be admitted into the hospital. The other 20% will need to be covered by Medisave, a health savings account that individuals can contribute to, or Medishield, a low cost catastrophic medical insurance (Ministry of Health (MOH) Singapore, 2012). Some citizens may have access to private insurance to supplement the government programs.

A search was conducted using Popline, Pubmed, the World Health Organization, UNHCR and the UNICEF website (table 2). After applying in- and exclusion criteria (table 3) and reference screening, 15 articles and reports were found useful.