Common Diseases in Sudan

Sudan is an East African country that has been embroiled in civil wars for several decades, leading to its split with South Sudan in 2011. The long period of instability in the country has contributed to conditions that encourage the spread of communicable diseases, which are some of the most common diseases in Sudan.

Yellow Fever
Yellow fever is a common virus found in tropical areas of South America and Africa. Transmitted to an individual through the bite of an infected mosquito, yellow fever ranks as one of the most common diseases in Sudan. Symptoms include influenza-like symptoms such as a fever, chills, severe headache, back pain, general body aches, nausea, vomiting, fatigue and weakness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Severe cases can lead to internal bleeding and failure of major organs. Sudan is listed as one of the thirty countries in Africa with a high risk of yellow fever.

Rift Valley Fever
From 2007 to 2010, a major outbreak of Rift Valley fever, a mosquito-borne viral disease, was recorded in Sudan. Standing water from unusual flooding allowed for infected mosquito eggs to lie dormant. Infected mosquitos also feed on livestock, which can pass the disease to humans through infected blood and meat. The Rift Valley fever outbreak devastated Sudanese agricultural communities, leading to an almost 100 percent mortality rate among young animals and high pregnancy failures among child-bearing livestock. According to the CDC, nearly 75,000 people were infected with the disease over the course of three years. Symptoms include fever and liver irregularities, but severe cases can cause hemorrhagic fever, encephalitis or ocular disease.

Guinea Worm Disease
One of the most geographically specific and common diseases in Sudan is Guinea worm disease. The infection, caused by the parasite Dracunculus medinensis, the Guinea worm, is spread by drinking water containing worm larvae. Guinea worm disease highly affects poor communities in Sudan that have little access to clean drinking water. Once ingested, over the course of a year, larvae grow into full-size adults within a human’s digestive tract. Within 24 to 72 hours after reaching full-size, the infected person develops blisters on their hands or feet, out of which the worm eventually emerges. Based on research by the CDC, there is applicable treatment of Guinea worm disease and no vaccine for prevention.

Meningococcal Meningitis
Meningococcal meningitis is a bacterial disease that causes an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord. It is a respiratory disease transmitted from person to person by close and prolonged contact resulting from crowded living conditions. Sudan lies in the region of sub-Saharan Africa referred to as the “Meningitis Belt,” where the highest rate of meningococcal meningitis occurs throughout the continent. Symptoms can include a stiff neck, high fever, headaches and vomiting. The CIA World Factbook listed Sudan as a country at very high risk of infection.

Malaria
Transmitted to humans through the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito, malaria ranks as one of the most common diseases in Sudan. With cases recorded in all regions of Sudan, the risk of contracting the disease is extremely high. According to the CDC, symptoms of malaria include fever, chills and flu-like illness. Severe cases can end in death. In 2015, a confirmed 586,827 cases of the disease were treated. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, including unreported cases, there were 1,400,000 total. Estimated deaths total around 3,500.

HIV/AIDS
Based on research conducted by the CDC, human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) affect an estimated 35 million people worldwide, with more than two-thirds of those living in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2015, 25 percent of adults in Sudan were living with HIV/AIDS, according to the CIA World Factbook. HIV/AIDS is most often spread through unprotected intercourse but can be contracted by blood-to-blood contact with an infected person. Symptoms are often flu-like and can progress to severe cases that can be fatal. HIV/AIDS ranks as an extremely common disease in Sudan today.

Despite the country’s high risk of contracting an infectious disease, work is being done to combat issues related to health and sanitation. The World Health Organization, in coordination with the Sudanese Ministry of Health, is taking action, such as expanding cholera emergency responses to lower future risk and training health workers in disease detection.

– Riley Bunch

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Causes of Poverty in Bhutan Continue

The Kingdom of Bhutan is a small Himalayan country of 750,000 people. Over one-third of the population lives below the poverty line. Ninety-six percent affected by the causes of poverty in Bhutan live in rural areas. The ones most impacted work outside the country’s modern economy, and include farmers, day laborers and small traders.

The Power of Nature

One cause of poverty in Bhutan cannot be controlled: the Himalayan landscape.

Natural disasters, such as floods and landslides, can wreak havoc on communities and ruin crops. Forces of nature can wipe out entire villages, forcing those already living in poverty to re-build their lives.

When weather conditions prevent a bountiful harvest, farmers do not have alternative options to financially recover. Farmers often don’t own enough productive land and livestock to gain financial security. Opportunities to generate cash income outside of agriculture are extremely limited, making farmers exclusively dependent on the success crops.  In rural areas, off-farm employment in rural areas is rare.

Rugged terrain also makes travel difficult for rural populations. A person may have to walk three hours to a few days to reach a highway or main road. These demanding journeys limit access to social and health services, markets, technology and education.

The Struggle of Large Families, Students and Laborers 

Other causes of poverty in Bhutan are due to family size, lack of education and limited jobs.

Large families with a high dependency ratio (children and adults who cannot work) experience more poverty in both urban and rural areas. As of 2004, 49 percent of families in the rural areas of Bhutan had six or more members. These families experience labor shortages when youth and working adults leave their villages for the country’s urban centers.

A student in Bhutan’s rural regions may have to walk two to three hours each way to access the nearest primary school. Because access to education is difficult and limited, the adult literacy rate and opportunities to gain productive skills in the rural areas of Bhutan remain low. As of 2004, less than half of the Bhutan’s rural population was literate.

For day laborers and small traders outside of Bhutan’s agriculture-based economy, low earnings are often not enough to overcome poverty. Even when laborers and traders work more than one job, they are often unable to earn enough to live consistently above the poverty line.

Reducing Poverty and Staying Happy  

Local government is working to address the causes of poverty in Bhutan and build long-term solutions and comprehensive development programs, especially in rural areas.

Despite the various causes of poverty in Bhutan, the country is well-known as one of the happiest countries in Asia. As Bhutan aims to overcome poverty, it carries the rich success of its famous priority: happiness.

– Smriti Krishnan

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Smooth Sailing for Clean Water Projects in China

Despite its high-tech industry and rapidly growing economy, China is unfortunately also known for its poor water quality. In order to address the environmental implications of these water conditions, 8,000 clean water projects in China have been successfully launched since the start of 2017.

The announcement of the success of nearly 8,000 clean water projects came from China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) when they launched the projects at the beginning of the year. This plan to combat water pollution began in 2015, when 343 contaminated groundwater sites were identified and slated for improvement by the government.

The Chinese government promised to improve major waterways as well as to treat wastewater from industrial activities like mining and oil refining. Some areas of land have since been protected from animal husbandry and similar activities and government officials are now held more accountable for the water quality in their respective regions.

According to the report from the MEP, about 95 percent of the sites identified have been improved since the start of the project. However, officials did note that the water quality in some regions – Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning and Anhui – had not received the proper attention.

Water pollution has long been a persistent problem in China. In 2015, 60 percent of groundwater and one-third of surface water was considered to be unfit for human contact by the environment ministry. Water deemed unfit for human contact is often relegated to industrial or agricultural purposes, such as irrigation.

For a population as large as China’s, the lack of available drinking water poses serious complications. The country simply does not have enough water to sustain a population of over one billion people. This is due – in part – to a lack of environmental regulation, however, the industrialization that has overtaken Chinese cities has also dominated much of the water supply.

The clean water projects in China demonstrate the government’s recognition of the importance of combating water scarcity. As a whole, these projects have cost the Chinese government 667.4 billion Yuan or $100 billion U.S. However, these are not the only costly environmental expenditures recently made by the Chinese government.

The Chinese government has also allocated money to solar installations and alternative energy sources in an effort to move away from fossil fuels. This, as well as the implementation of the clean water projects, is part of a greater move toward more environmentally friendly policies and practices. China’s commitment to its environmental goals is a promising look at the future of this flourishing country.

– Jennifer Faulkner

Photo: Flickr

Three Causes of Poverty in Armenia

Armenia is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe that saw a steady decrease in poverty after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. However, Armenia was hit quite hard by the recession in 2008, and the economy is still trying to right itself. Many families in Armenia struggle to find work and affordable necessities. The poverty rate in Armenia is 29.8 percent. The main causes of poverty in Armenia are a lack of jobs within the country, a high unemployment rate and a weak agricultural system.

Migration of Workforce
One of the main causes of poverty in Armenia is a lack of jobs. This is demonstrated through the number of workers who emigrate. The majority of men leave the country to earn wages in Russia. Some researchers estimate that almost 14 percent of the Armenian population has emigrated to find employment elsewhere.

In order to combat this problem, Armenia needs to create more job opportunities within the country. Currently, one-fourth of jobs in Armenia are low-paying jobs; thus, Armenia needs to create more middle-income positions. Formal businesses want the government to impose more regulations so that informal employers do not have advantages. If the Armenian government intervened, these businesses could create many more jobs.

Unemployment
Unemployment and poverty in Armenia are closely linked. In 2010, when the head of the household was unemployed there was a 50 percent chance they lived below the poverty line. The reported unemployment rate in Armenia is 16 percent. The average job search is 20 months. Unemployment benefits in Armenia are minimal, so a large percentage of the unemployed do not register. The number of unemployed people in Armenia is estimated to be closer to 30 percent.

There is low labor force participation in Armenia. Around 70 percent of women in Armenia are unemployed and only 55 percent of women who are of working age are active in the economy. One way to solve this aspect of unemployment is for the government to create incentives to encourage women to join the workforce. The Armenian government can also work to remove barriers to working such as transportation or household responsibilities.

Weak Agricultural System
The agricultural system in Armenia does not create enough jobs or affordable food. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Armenia had to replace some of its industrial economy with agriculture to feed its people. The government rapidly created small farms and sold them to citizens. Many of the newly minted farms were created in mountain regions with difficult terrain. Farmers often lack agricultural knowledge. In addition, many of the small farms do not have adequate infrastructures or access to farming technology. Government policy has not bolstered the efficiency of farms; instead, changing regulations and policies have damaged the agricultural sector. If Armenia can develop its agricultural sector through education, infrastructure and policy, the country will be able to produce more of its own food and improve the standard of living.

While over one-quarter of Armenians live in poverty today, this number can be reduced. Creating more attractive jobs within Armenia will encourage citizens to work in their country. In addition, the development of programs to help people join the workforce will help decrease the unemployment rate. Finally, as Armenia improves its agriculture system, the price of food in the country will decrease.

– Sarah Denning

Effects of Poverty on the Brain Development of Children

Of all the social issues faced by a developing country, poverty often feels especially overwhelming. Of the many factors working against the poor, the effects of poverty on the brain development of children is probably the most daunting yet.

Researchers have long suspected a correlation between a child’s behavior and cognitive abilities and their socio-economic status. This correlation becomes even more apparent among people living in extreme poverty. In a 2015 study published in Nature Neuroscience, a team led by neuroscientists Kimberly Noble from Columbia University in New York City and Elizabeth Sowell from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, California, imaged the brains of 1,099 children, adolescents and young adults in several U.S. cities. Their findings revealed that children from the lowest income bracket of less than $25,000 had up to six percent less surface area than children from families making more than $150,000. Within the poorest families themselves, income inequalities of a few thousand dollars were associated with major differences in brain structure and cognitive skills.

Within countries that live on less than a dollar a day, researchers have found other developmental problems such as stunted growth and cognitive issues. In an unprecedented study conducted in 1960, a team of researchers began giving out nutritional supplements to young children in rural Guatemala. The study was aimed at collecting data to test the theory that providing enough supplements during a child’s formative years would help in reducing stunted growth. This theory was proved in the early 2000s, when the researchers returned to check on the children who had received the supplements in the first three years of their life. They found that not only did the children grow one to two centimeters more than the control group; they even scored higher in cognitive tests. This experiment proved the effects of poverty on the brain development of children.

In 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a study into the heights and weights of children between birth and age five in Brazil, Ghana, India, Norway, Oman and the United States. The results showed that healthy children, regardless of their home countries, follow a very similar growth trajectory. Based on these results, the WHO established benchmarks for atypical growth. In countries like Bangladesh, India, Guatemala and Nigeria, over 40 percent of children meet the definition of stunted growth. In light of the growing awareness and consensus around effects of stunting, the WHO included the reduction in the number of children under five with stunted growth by 40 percent as one of its six global nutritional targets for 2025.

Similar studies were conducted in Brazil, Peru, Jamaica, the Philippines, Kenya and Zimbabwe, all with the same conclusion. However, pediatric cognitive development is a complex multidimensional problem and not all stunted growth, which affects an estimated 160 million children worldwide, is connected to malnutrition. Malnutrition is one side of this multifaceted problem; poor sanitation, stressful home environments, exposure to industrial chemicals, lack of access to good education and income disparities are other possible factors.

It would not be an overstatement to say that all research points to an urgent need to address the problem of world poverty. Factors such as lack of education, poor hygiene, lack of pre-post-natal care, nutritional deficiency, exposure to chemicals and stressful childhood are some of the paralyzing issues faced by those in extreme poverty. The daunting effects of poverty on the brain development of children have already been proven by researchers and new research and studies are further fortifying what is already known. In essence, even as officials start to take action in providing adequate nutrition, research cannot be clearer in building the case for the urgent need to eliminate world poverty.

– Jagriti Misra

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