Improving Public Health Services At Low Income Countries

According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. Numerous amounts of people suffer in third world countries. In the future some people want to become rich, others want to be an athlete's. Something I would like to accomplish in the future, is to help people in third world countries because they need health care, I would be glad to see the results of my works, and they deserve just as much as everyone does.

For example, “Hospitals have seen an influx of patients suffering from preventable diseases, the aid group said”. These preventable diseases can include diarrhea, typhoid, hepatitis A, and most commonly malaria. Two out of every five children survive into their adulthood; because of unsanitary conditions, these diseases which are not prominent in well developed countries, have pronounced themselves as some of the most dangerous diseases in the country. This decrease of sanitation can be partially blamed on the ongoing war in the Congo. The rebel groups use children soldiers to fight their opponents. Furthermore, hospitals reported that, “Since government troops and rebels began clashing in the volatile eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, ‘the numbers arriving at the hospital have gone through the roof,’ said Dr. Louis Kamate of the Virunga Referral Hospital in Goma”. Conflicts and poverty have been proven to be the main factors of child death in the Congo. In order for the society to be successful, they must put an end to this terrible aspect of the country.

According to the Bloomberg website, the United States is ranked 50th out of the 55 countries that were assessed as a country having one of the least efficient healthcare systems. Not a very good rank for such a developed country. More importantly, it is not very good for a country that is considered to be a high-income country. It brings up the question asking how other health care systems are in other countries around the world especially in low income countries. What are the affects by having limited access to health care in counties like Guinea, Ethiopia, or Mali? Below are a few ways in which low income countries are affected by having little access to health care services.

Throughout Kidders book Mountains Beyond Mountains, it is strongly argued that many of the impoverished nations around the world have extremely inadequate and horrible health care.

In a medically savaged developing country when there is a sudden influx of scarce resources, whom of the inflicted and in need shall be the beneficiary? The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care....” (Skolnik, 2016). Poverty stricken countries caught up in a labyrinth of illness are unable to deliver the correct care their inhabitants necessitate. Richard Skolnik in “Global Health 101” identifies four basic ethical principles underlying most scarce resource allocation schemes as: 1) health maximization; 2) equality; 3) priority to the worst off and 4) personal responsibility.

Compounding this lack of care, Haitians also lack clean drinking water and proper sanitation systems. Less than half the population has access to clean drinking water, a rate that is only surpassed by civil war-torn African nations. Even worse, half the population of Haiti can be categorized as “food insecure,” and this malnutrition has created a generation where half of all Haitian children are undersized (IFRC, 2010). In addition, this poor sanitation and hygiene, coupled with inadequate nutrition, have contributed to exceptionally high levels of individuals with chronic, yet often at best ill-treated, conditions.

That “over 1 billion people lack access to safe water supplies;” and that “2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation.” (WHO, 2005)

Adequate health care for the poor is an issue that the whole world has been fighting for a very long time. There are many people that go without proper health care on a daily basis, leaving them susceptible to serious illnesses such as tuberculosis. In the book Mountains Beyond Mountains Dr. Paul Farmer understood just how crucial it was to provide decent health care for the needy. Many choose to believe that the lack of proper care only affects third world countries.

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

mothers during their pregnancy period as well as during and after birth which ultimately will greatly contribute towards the survival of the child. Poor families are often unable to obtain even the most basic health care for their children. Poor or delayed care-seeking contributes to up to 70% of all under-five child deaths. Of the 12 countries where more than 20% of children die before their fifth birthday, nine have suffered a major armed conflict in recently. Countries with weak and fragile health systems have not been able to provide effective child survival strategies that are crucial to reduce under-five child deaths, and especially neonatal deaths. Basic health services have been lacking as well as nutrition, water supplies and sanitation

The Malawi Government has been consistently looking for ways to improve the public health including maintaining a budget for disease prevention and control. The Government has also teamed up with the Ministry of health to create a Health Services delivery system in Malawi to address the needs of treatment and care of patients (CDC, 2016). Together the government and Ministry offer services to the community through Health centers and Hospitals, and also through community based educational services. They have set up Health Surveillance Assistants (HSA) to help create a connection to the community. The HSA conduct health education services, immunizations, and other services.

Although volunteers for Medecins Sans Frontiers are commonly stationed in various countries with a dire healthcare worker shortage, regions with refugee camps and internally displaced persons are also a focus for this organization. Refugees and internally displaced persons often come from war torn regions and live in close confines with poor sanitation and limited resources. These living situations become a breeding ground for diseases and other health issues like malnutrition, yet the individuals lack access to any sort of healthcare. The organization also responds quickly when regions suddenly experience an increased need for healthcare, for example in times of an epidemic or a natural disaster. Medecins Sans Frontiers’ involvement across its varying regions and their attempt to address a broad spectrum of healthcare truly show how altruistic the organization is to individuals regardless of race, gender, or religion.

In 2015, 303 000 women died due to pregnancy or childbirth-related complications and 5.9 million children died under the age of 5 (WHO, 2016). Furthermore, over 45% of the child deaths occur during the first 28 days of life. The majority of the maternal and child deaths occur in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Moreover, a child from a poor background in these countries is 56 times more likely not to survive the first 5 years of life (Lassi et al., 2014). The problem of poor maternal, neonatal and child health persists in the majority of LMICs and it largely contributes to higher rates of premature mortality. Preterm birth complications, birth asphyxia, and birth-related trauma, as well as diarrheal diseases, remain to be leading causes of mortality and morbidity in these countries (WHO, 2012). Nevertheless, the majority of maternal and child deaths can be averted using existing knowledge and effective interventions along with sufficient health recourses (Lassi et al., 2014). Despite substantial progress towards reducing the number of these deaths over the past few decades, it is still very slow. It can also be clearly seen that the social and geographical patterns in poor maternal and child health to some extent reflect inequalities between ‘rich’ and ‘poor’, with the majority of the progress in reducing the mortality numbers occurring in wealthy countries (Zere et al., 2012).

Thesis: In order to overcome geographic obstacles, developing countries should focus their efforts on expanding the nation’s healthcare infrastructure by constructing a network of accessible and affordable medical care and emergency services, expanding access to higher education in medicine for students, and dedicating resources to the research and development of vaccines against common tropical illnesses. By reducing the incidence of illness and sick leave in the work force, these projects will increase labor productivity and, therefore, also increase real GDP per capita, stimulating long-term economic growth.

The current death rate is 29 per 1,000 live births and of the 2.8 million newborns dying at birth worldwide, India accounts for 700,000 children dying at birth or shortly after. The National Health Policy to improve care children and women. Poor neonatal health conditions, widespread illiteracy, poverty, poor sanitation and nutrition have also been identified and India’s hopes to tackle these issues by passing this policy.