Infectious DiseasesEssay Preview: Infectious DiseasesReport this essayIllness and death from infectious diseases are particularly tragic because they are preventable and treatable. Not surprisingly, the poorest and most vulnerable are the most severely affected by infectious disease. Infectious diseases are a major cause of death, disability and social and economic turmoil for millions around the world. Poverty stricken countries lack access to health care. Reports show that in nations with the lowest economic status the causes of death are primarily infectious and nutritional diseases. Respiratory infections like the flu, pneumonia, diphtheria, and tuberculosis and gastrointestinal illnesses like dysentery and viral diarrhea kill children and adults most commonly in these countries. Unlike the United States, many children in these poor countries do not survive childhood diseases like chicken pox and measles. Also different from the United States, over 50% of deaths were due to infectious and parasitic diseases. In these developing countries chronic diseases such as cancer are only responsible for one fourth of all deaths, whereas in the US chronic diseases are responsible for about three fourths of all deaths.
Very crowded and poor living conditions make the people living in poverty vulnerable to infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and cholera. Poor nutrition and poor immune systems are high risk factors for several major killers including lower respiratory infections, tuberculosis and measles. In these poor countries there is limited access to health care. For example according to table 21.3, in the United States there are approximately 406 people per every doctor. In a poor country such as Ethiopia there are as many as 36,660 people per doctor. This means that for each person in the country to get seen one time a year every doctor would have to see over 100 patients a day every day of the week. Limited access to drugs makes treatable conditions like malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis fatal for the poor.
Unexplained Costs of Poor Medical Treatment
Unexplained costs to health care care providers of poor countries can adversely affect the quality of care provided. Poor care, often without benefit, affects health of health care workers and taxpayers. For example, over the years health care providers in poor countries have to rely on subsidies from the United States for health care services. Some poor countries depend on food rationing policies which are in violation of international rules. In these conditions, some health care providers must rely on a group system which is unfair. To get government financial assistance in developing countries on the health care provision of their health care, health care providers must use a group system. These health care providers also have to provide health-care services and pay for health services that are performed by state and local governments.
In the United States, for example the most expensive health care care on the planet is the health care for children. Children in poor countries have a much higher average level of medical and social expenses than their fellow American citizens. However, the average cost of health care for children in developing countries, including in developing countries, is higher than one would expect. There is a severe economic gap between the two groups in their lives because they are often both poor and illiterate, and because poor families depend on health care for their financial security. In poor countries children are frequently required to eat a meal in order to feed their families, and health services and services provided by poor families are often limited, inadequate, and unreliable. In poor countries health care professionals are required to provide services that are expensive for everyone regardless of their income levels. Because the number of poor people living in poor countries is very small, it is difficult to predict the cost of health care services that may be provided to poor people in poor countries. The cost data that are available in the United States for various health care institutions in poor countries are difficult to understand, but provide some clue. As of 2015, the United States had one of the lowest levels of health care spending among developed countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) because it had an additional 3.6 percent of poor health care system cost and 8.4 percent of poor system cost. The U.S. has the lowest health care system cost of 4.7 percent in OECD countries. The cost burden for poor health care is also high in poorer countries, with the United States ranking third in their lowest cost of health care system cost.
Although economic disparities in health care costs for poor countries are widely publicized, some may believe that poverty is a universal human right. This claim is based on the notion that poverty is a human right, that all suffering is caused by human action, that in order to be a person, if you have resources and therefore must be able to live in the same place all of the time as others, you must have a physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical disability. This view has long been used and perpetuated by groups with low educational resources. Unfortunately it has been discredited as a false belief because of the fact that poor people are underrepresented in these social networks and because people of low social networks face a disadvantage in obtaining health care services because they have poor health care status
The Human Right to Access Health Care is a basic right guaranteed by the US Constitution and to include all kinds of services for the purpose of improving a person’s health and well-being. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) seeks to make this claim into law by providing a list of essential services and providing an analysis of their cost and benefit. The Human Rights Campaign is concerned that there are no effective treatments available for human rights violations, that some types of treatment do not go far enough and are a detriment to the quality of life of people under abuse, that treatment does not reflect a commitment to basic human rights, and that the US government has committed itself to making such basic human rights claims public.
However, there is growing evidence that the use of technology, particularly the Internet, has been increasing the number of women and minorities in prison and in emergency room care, as well as affecting their health and wellbeing. In addition, the U.S. system of incarceration reduces the capacity of vulnerable Americans to protect themselves from a range of human rights abuses, including harassment, forced or unfair separation of powers, discrimination or exclusion for sex, physical abuse, and neglect for those under the age of 24.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently surveyed nearly 40,000 federal prison inmates, inmates, noninstitutionalized persons, and health care providers and indicated that, for those arrested, the government provides more resources to support their personal health and well-being than the private correctional sector does, and to reduce health care costs. GAO found that the use of cellphones, the internet, and mobile devices has increased prison use, as has the use of incarceration as a punishment alternative and the use of solitary confinement as a medical isolation facility.
To help improve the mental health of incarcerated individuals, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it would offer $30 million to implement the Human Rights Campaign’s pilot program, the HSR Project, to increase access to affordable and effective treatments and services, including health care professionals. In addition, HSR Project participants will have access to resources such as counseling and referral assistance to reduce incarcerated conditions.
The Human Rights Campaign’s main goal is to prevent the use of incarceration for human rights abuses and to advance the common good, including increasing public understanding of human rights abuses as a matter of national policy. The Human Rights Campaign’s pilot program will provide $30 million in federal funding to implement the HSR Project on a first-line basis over the next five years. As a result, $28 million have been allocated to the Human Rights Campaign to address barriers the government faces to obtaining and sustaining services in prison. Further funding will be provided by the Juvenile Justice System Development Fund, to enable the programs as they are implemented during the next five years. To help accelerate access to affordable and effective treatment and services, the US Administration of the Office of Prison Governors will build upon the existing funding in partnership with U.S. State and local governments to provide services to people in prison and to enable funding for those efforts that are already in place. These basic programs may include:
Public Education Funding: $100 Billion $30 Million, or $20.5 billion, of an American public school system’s educational and community improvement programs will support community-based efforts of students, teachers, administrators, parents, and
The most prominent infectious diseases in developing countries are malaria, schistosomiasis and trypanosomiasis. Malaria is the leading cause of death in tropical countries. More than one million deaths occur each year. Malaria is a vector borne parasitic infection. It is caused by a parasite that is transmitted through the bite of the Anopheles mosquito. Plasmodium is the causative organism. People infected with the parasite that causes malaria could experience weeks or months of bad health. Children and pregnant women are less likely to recover than adults who have built up immunity to the disease. Malaria has increased