Health Issues Of The Dominican Republic

HIV has affected people all across the world. HIV comes with physical and mental symptoms. The body symptoms include skin flaking off, being dry, skin peeling off (Saliba 23) , fingernails falling off (32), and weight loss (14). Mentally it is hard to sleep, people become weak, and are tired all the time (23). People all across the world are infected with this disease, and the problem with this is the fact that most do not even know they have it. The most people who are infected each year are African Americans, gays, or bisexuals. 10,315 African Americans were infected in 2015. The U.S.A. has estimated about 1.1 million are infected with the disease. Equally to about 12,333 deaths happened in 2014 from AIDS related diseases, and 6,721 deaths from AIDS directly. Although there are a large amount of people getting infected, on the other hand eighteen percent of the population with HIV is declining since 2008-2014 (“U.S. Statistics”). In the world about 33.2 million people worldwide have HIV, with 22.5 million people in sub Saharan Africa are living with this condition, one out of nine people who live in South America have HIV or AIDS (Saliba 8).

In this writing assignment I will describe the healthcare conditions of the Dominican Republic and will offer a brief look at the country’s history, and current status health and economic status. The primary focus will be the country’s healthcare and economic systems as they pertain to access to care, quality of care, primary health determinants, and the financial situation surrounding the county.

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). AIDS weakens the immune system hampering the body’s defense mechanisms. AIDS is known to be a deadly disease, especially if it is not treated in a timely manner. AIDS and HIV is an epidemic that is increasing among the African American population with roots tracing back to Africa, AIDS and HIV needs greater exposure and more awareness within the African American community and in the homosexual community.

On the island of Hispaniola, which borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean sea is home to the countries o the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Dominican Republic occupies about two/ thirds of the island and is home to roughly around 10.65 million people. The Dominican Republic has many mountains and valleys which divide the country into the three regions of the northern, the central, and the southwestern. The northern region borders the Atlantic Ocean and is made up of mountains or in Spanish as they call it “ The Cordillera Sepetentrional. Along the northern region of the country as well is the Cibao Valley which is Spanish means rocky land. The Cibao valley is the most populated region of the Dominican Republic. It is also a

Poverty, lower education, language barriers and access to health care are all factors that contribute to this population being at a high risk of contracting the disease and to be infected and not be aware of it. Hispanics are among the lower tested for HIV in the United States and this is because there is a misconception that when the go see their doctor, they are automatically tested for it. The language barrier affects their ability to speak clearly with their providers and to receive education about the disease and how to prevent it. Access to health care is another huge factor, because most Hispanics live in poverty they are not insured and therefore do not have access to decent health care, which could provide them with the education that they need. Those who are a little more educated and find a clinic they could go to do not go because of the stigma associated with it, in some areas HIV clinics have names such as “Clinical Immunology” and “AIDS team” these are not places that Hispanics want to be seen walking into for fear of being judged by their family and friends (Moran, 2007).

These are lower than the values of those of the world by .1% for these years, respectively. These values mean that sex education and contraception use were high and have effectively increased since 1995. This is crucial for a developing country because much of the population in other countries like Chad, Nigeria, and Cameroon have HIV/AIDS and thus are prone to more deaths because of it. This is because there is a large dearth in health care. As the percent of the population, 15-49, with HIV/AIDS decreases, the CDR will decrease and hopefully increase the population. The infant mortality rate (IMR) indicates the number of deaths for a person under the age of 1 per 1000 live births. The Dominican Republic’s IMR is 27 or 2.7%. This, in comparison to the world average, is significantly lower. This rate is caused by lack of healthcare, malnutrition and a low number in urban population. The more a population is urbanized, the more access it has to proper food sources and healthcare and as a result, better off to survive. With a lower than average IMR, the Dominican Republic is effectively keeping a low CBR and can expect to see a decrease as more of the population transitions from rural to urban.

Colombia is a country with many city, Bogota, being the capital of Colombia. Colombia has approximately 47.12 million people living there since 2013, with many more to come. Most population in Colombia are Latinos, we speak fluent Spanish, as there first leagues. There are other leagues but Spanish is the top one.

The history of the Dominican Republic formation is first dated back to The Taino’s, which split up the island into five territories and chiefdoms. A major event of the country’s formation was in 1492 when in his first voyage Christopher Columbus’s discovered and claimed it. Columbus’s exploration triggered Spanish takeover of the American mainland and the Caribbean. Due to the French taking control of the western third of the island, that part of the island became known as Haiti in 1804. The Dominican Republic tried to gain its own independence in 1821 but failed for 22 years due to the Haitians taking the island over until 1844 when it gained its own independence. But they willingly returned to the Spanish Empire in 1861. Due to voluntarily

a rich and diverse society in which I grew up and partook in work at.

AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) is defined by the Mayo Clinic as "A chronic, potentially life-threatening condition which is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV damages the immune system, and interferes with the ability the body has to fight the disease causing organism" (Mayo Clinic, 2014). HIV is an infection transmitted sexually. Another mode of transmission for HIV is by exposure to infected blood, or it could also be transmitted from the mother to the unborn child during the course of pregnancy, at childbirth or through breastfeeding. It may take several years for the HIV virus to weaken the immune system

Poverty, healthcare access, and risk taking behaviors are all among the answer. One in 4 African-American women lives in poverty, and people living in poverty also get lower-quality health care in general. Exchanging sex for drugs, money, or to meet other needs causes the increase HIV risk factors. For woman living in poverty with low quality health care gives the HIV infection to advance into AIDS more quickly. HIV is mostly spread to women through sexual contact. Untreated STDs that break the skin, like genital herpes, give HIV an access into the bloodstream. 23% of African American women were infected with HIV by injection drug use. Being under the influence of any substance can cause woman to have high risk behaviors such as unprotected sex and sharing of injection drug paraphernalia.

“Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a blood-borne virus typically transmitted via sexual intercourse, shared intravenous drug paraphernalia, and mother-to-child transmission (MTCT), which can occur during the birth processor during breastfeeding.” There is no cure for HIV or AIDS but over time different types of medications have been developed that slows down the advancement of the disease. AIDS is a lethal disease that is caused by HIV. HIV destroys the immune system and causes the body to not be able to fight off any diseases.

Epidemic). In most areas of Africa, it is very likely that a child will die of AIDS, from

A health care system is a framework of interrelated, interacting, and interdependent descriptions of human development in a given country, region, or community. This system of human development functions as an organized measure to promote and provide treatment in which individuals reach their highest attainable level of physical, mental, and social well-being. All health care systems are grounded in the concept that genetic and biological factors must be taken into account to understand the problems and behaviors of a specific population. The interconnected factors that determine an individual’s health status includes personal features, social status, culture, environment, educational attainment, health behaviors, childhood development, access to care, and government policy. International collaboration of ideas on the progression of transnational health is greatly endorsed for the benefit of complete global health care. Health care has social, governmental, and financial implications that affect all members of the health care system and in countries within the Central American region specially, citizens have fallen victim to health disparities that have resulted from long-term neglect of the underlying factors that perpetuate this issue.

HIV is global pandemic stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, weakens the immune system by destroying the important cells in our body that fights against disease and infection. Our immune system is able to clear out most of the viruses from our body, but once you have HIV , you have it for lifelong. HIV can hide in our body cells for long time and it can attack the T cells and CD4 cells, a key part of our immune system to fight infections and diseases. Overtime, the HIV may attack so many of CD4 cells and our body is no more able to fight against infections. When this happens, HIV can lead to AIDS, the final stage of HIV infection. HIV can be transmitted through sexual contact, injection or drug use, pregnancy, breast feeding, occupational exposure, and rarely through blood transfusion and organ