Following the end of a decade-long Civil War in 2002, the West African country of the Republic of Sierra Leone began a period of rebuilding, which has only been slowed by the recent Ebola epidemic. The total population of Sierra Leone hovers around 6,453,000, with about 1,004,000 of these children under five years old. The majority population is poor, with a GDP per capita at 1,600 USD, which ranks them in place 214 when compared globally. According to a 2004 estimate, 70.2% of the population is below the poverty line. Although Sierra Leone as country is fairly resource-rich, with resources including mining for diamonds and bauxite, “nearly half of the working-age population engages in subsistence agriculture. ” High rates of poverty can place a significant burden on the health of a country. In the following situation brief, topics including burden of disease, key determinants of health, and analysis of equity will be discussed in order to assess the state of health in Sierra Leone.
Burden of Disease Summary:
In Sierra Leone, the life expectancy at birth is 56.5 years for men, and 57.7 years for women . Although these statistics are low when compared the global average of 71.4 years and countries in the region like Liberia with an average life expectancy of 63.2 years , the average life expectancy in Sierra Leone has increased 5.5 years since 1990 . However, overall, the life expectancy at birth is much lower than global averages.
The most significant cause of death in
Children who are poor are most often born into poverty. Poverty is the lack of necessary needs in order to survive. Whether this be shelter, food, or water, most comes from a lack of cash flow through the family. Other situations can be divorces, children joining or being taken by rebel forces, parents passing away, or even situations of abuse. Statistics say that, “Around 55% of people live below the poverty line, living on less than a dollar each day. Areas with the greatest number of poor are particularly in the east of the country, where conflict continues”. With the majority of poor people living in the east, this also means that healthcare is worse there. When living conditions are not sanitary and there malnutrition, this causes people to become more susceptible to menial diseases. With all these factors taken into account, “The capital, Kinshasa, contains around 20-25,000 children who sleep rough and survive by begging”. Without means to help support these starving children, the country will continue to stay in this unproductive state; there needs to be a prevention of these preventable diseases killing the
In late 2013, Ebola virus disease (EVD), a deadly and lethal disease, remerged in West Africa spreading to various countries in the region. In humans, the disease is spread through contact with infected bodily fluids leading to haemorrhagic fever (World Health Organization [WHO], 2015). Originating in 1976 in equatorial Africa, past outbreaks with a few hundred cases had been contained within rural, forested areas in Uganda and Congo (Piot, 2012). In 2014, a total of 20, 206 cases and 7,905 deaths were reported to have occurred in up to eight countries worldwide. Of all cases and deaths resulting from the disease, 99.8% occurred in three neighbouring West African countries - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea (WHO, 2014). With a case fatality rate from about 50% to 90%, and the absence of preventative or curative therapies, the Ebola epidemic has led to overall global alarm and further elucidated existing global health disparities that perpetuated the epidemic with these West African countries.
UNICEF officer, Suzanne Mary Beukes provided a clearer insight to how poor the country of Guinea is when she wrote, "The world has virtually quarantined a country in which 43 percent of people were already living on less than $1.25 a day prior to this health crisis” (Gholipour, 2014). The countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone (the countries where outbreaks primarily occurred), are some of the poorest countries in the world as a result of their recent civil war and the damaged health and education infrastructures that followed. (“Factors that Contributed to the Spread of Ebola,” n.d., para. 10). The poor infrastructures led to the delayed transportation of patients and lab work to labs and hospitals in addition to the lack of communication between health facilities. In addition to the lack of health facilities, there was shortage of healthcare workers. “Prior to the outbreaks, the three countries (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone) had a ratio of only one to two doctors per nearly 100,000 population” (“Factors that Contributed to the Spread of Ebola,” n.d., para. 15). The poverty in these cities and countries lead people to want to move to a better standard of living, be treated for the virus, and look for food &
In recent years, Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone have launched major healthcare initiatives in order to expand and improve access to services. However, the state of health systems for the last 20 years is difficult to overcome. Liberia and Sierra Leone were each embroiled in civil wars until the mid-2000s. Porous borders and a shared diamond belt meant that their conflicts were often shared, as political strife, violence, looting, armed forces, and refugees moved to neighboring countries. , Guinea in particular was on the receiving end of refugees. During that time in all three countries, health systems were uniformly poor, with under-staffed and under-resourced facilities, significant health disparities, and almost no systematic infectious disease surveillance or control.
Over 75% of people in Haiti are in poverty due to many reasons including a lack in education. Why don’t they go to school? Well they have to walk to school, which is 2 miles to and 2 miles back most of the time(Not to mention without good water or food). Adding buses would be amazing for Haiti since it erases the long walk, and many kids can get to school faster and easier. That will make it so more kids can go to school. So, in the long run, this will create more jobs, hopefully sparking the economy and possibly getting Haiti back to being a functional country. This is a long shot, but even if it doesn’t work, this it will at least get more kids in school.
The Caribbean country of Haiti holds a growing capacity of Roman Catholics, and although the country has no official religion, more than half of the population currently practices Catholicism. Haiti is most known for its vulnerability to natural disasters such as the earthquake of 2010 that plagued the country and disrupted not only the Christian community but every community in Haiti. The issue of poverty is also prevalent throughout Haiti, which is the poorest country in the Americas. Another influential factor in Haiti’s attempt at societal and spiritual growth is social class, a ranking system in the country that is determined by wealth and race. Each of these issues impacts Haiti’s local religious communities as well as its role in the
In the years since the earthquake hit Haiti, resupplying health care, rebuilding structures, and improving living conditions, has been underfinanced. For example, Dr. Ryan K of Harvard School of Public spent three years studying the poverty in Haiti. His particular position and experience adds an internal perspective. In his text “Activity-based costing of healthcare delivery, Haiti” he explains the how the higher standards of primary care systems can advance health results, maximize efficient use of resources and improve equality in health care. Primary care shapes “the cornerstone” (p. 3) of a practical health system. Haiti has a unique situation regarding care quality. Haiti's poverty and poor population wellness outcomes and its current
The health of many women in Algeria which is part of Sub-Saharan Africa in 1990 were impacted by the poor health care system because they lived in poverty. Poverty caused these women to lack essential needs to live a quality life. They lacked or could not afford resources such as supplies, health care professionals, and facilities for healthcare, clean water, and waste disposal. This ultimately affected the health of women and their children. For instance, lack of clean water and waste disposal facilities can cause health abnormalities such as cholera or typhoid fever which can cause devastating deaths. This is a healthcare problem because of the lack of funding. The lack of funding prevents antibiotics from being used to prevent death, and prevents African’s from being vaccinated against typhoid fever. Another example of how poverty affects woman’s health is unintended pregnancy, which is because they are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior. It's part of the health crisis because it includes a poor health system, and a lack of education about proper nutrition and behaviors during pregnancy. Complications in these pregnancies due to poor nutrition and not visiting the doctor regularly includes increased infant mortality. Infant mortality in the slums of Nairobe is 91.3% while it is 75.9% in urban areas where there is a better developed healthcare system. The inferiority of poor Africans in
On the hand, even to this day it is experiencing some major health issues, some they have found a way to eradicate or drastically decrease the amount of of people infected with these disease while others have been a lot more challenging. Ebola was a virus that the government of Sierra Leone made their goal to have zero of its people infected with at a certain point in time and the accomplished it. HIV/AIDS is a virus that affects thousands of men, women and children in Sierra Leone. On a good note, studies do show that there is a decrease in the number of new cases of infection. Malaria is one of those diseases that the Sierra Leonean people think they’ll never get rid of. It affects everyone of all races and ages. These illnesses and epidemics may weaken the economy and government of the country but the government is not giving up. As long as the country continues to put effort toward growth, it should continue to see
In Africa, specifically Sierra Leone, a war rages between the government and the rebels. Civil war terrorizes the people and has led people into fear and poverty. Some choose to run in fear, hoping the military will come in and protect their families from the ferocities and hideousness of the war at their doorstep. Others choose to, or are beaten into, joining the rebels or the so called Sebels. Going into the book I was aware of the horrors of war and the atrocities that humanity calls ‘sane’ and ‘legal’ in times of great crisis such as war. My reason for wanting to research the RUF is to understand why the war lasted so long and what the causes were for such a war. I had assumed the RUF was corrupted
Society must have wonder how could the first powerful black nation become the poorest country in the western hemisphere in just two centuries. Though many things could have contributed to the fall of Haiti, however the shot that delivered the biggest blow to the country’s economy was the accepted 150 million franc loan from France in 1838. This set-up loan gathered up such a ridiculously amount of debt over the course of 80 years that kept Haiti’s economy in a downwards path to destruction and poverty. People could even say that this loan was France’s ploy to punish island for its past rebellion that gained them their independence. With that being said my proposed topic is the investigation of economic development and growth through governmental decisions and how these decisions is affecting Haiti present-day economy.
Poverty doesn’t just affect the monetary areas in a community but also the education received by those living in that community many of the people that were contracted with Ebola didn’t have much knowledge about how it contracted? And how to reduce risk factors for contracting the virus. With less poverty and a greater push towards public health education in these community’s outbreaks, incidence rates can reduce dramatically.
Building a nation… Slavery, Independence, Constitution, Military coups to Presidential elections! Senior Enlisted leaders, it is important to know that the freedoms we all prefer comes with a cost of sacrifice, bloodshed, and for some, nation before self for democracy. This essay will discuss the background, government, strategic importance, and future direction of Sierra Leone.
Poverty in Developing and Less Developed Countries The world includes less developed countries and developing countries. Less developed countries are countries considered to be poor and often contain many people who are in absolute poverty. Developing countries are countries like India, which are gaining in wealth. There are two types of poverty within the world.
African nations regularly fall to the bottom of any list measuring economic activity, such as per capita income or per capita GDP, despite a wealth of natural resources. The bottom 25 spots of the United Nations (UN) quality of life index are regularly filled by African nations. In 2006, 34 of the 50 nations on the UN list of least developed countries are in Africa. In many nations, the per capita income is often less than $200 U.S. per year, with the vast majority of the population living on much less. In addition, Africa's share of income has been consistently dropping over the past century by any measure. In 1820, the average European worker earned about three times what the average African did. Now, the average European earns twenty