Botswana, located directly north of South Africa, has been victim to epidemics of deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. Prevention and treatment of these diseases is a top priority for Botswana’s ministry of health. Since these diseases have high mortality rates, it is important to look at the root causes and risk factors associated with common diseases in Botswana.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the deadliest common diseases in Botswana and the percent of deaths for which they are responsible are the following: HIV (32 percent), malaria (7 percent), tuberculosis (6 percent), diarrheal diseases (4 percent), cancer (4 percent), pre-term birth complications (2 percent), Ischemic Heart Disease (2 percent), stroke (2 percent) and STDs (2 percent).
The top three common diseases in Botswana — HIV, malaria and TB — are all communicable diseases, meaning that they are transmitted through contact. Communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional diseases comprise the deadliest category of diseases in Botswana. The next two categories of diseases with the highest mortality rates are non-communicable diseases and injuries, respectively. Cardiovascular diseases and cancer account for nearly half of deaths from non-communicable diseases. The top causes of deadly injuries in Botswana are self-harm and interpersonal violence, unintentional injuries and transport injuries, respectively.
Unsafe sex is the most prevalent risk factor for deadly diseases, accounting for about 60 percent of behavioral risk factors for contracting a deadly disease. It is by far the most common risk factor for HIV/AIDs and TB. Unsafe water, sanitation and handwashing habits account for 46.3 percent of environmental risk factors, followed by air pollution accounting for 37.1 percent of environmental risk factors. These are the most common risk factors for contracting diarrheal and infectious diseases. Alcohol and drug use is also a prevalent risk factor for contracting a deadly disease, such as HIV through needle sharing, or for certain injuries.
Several projects have been implemented for disease prevention and treatment, specifically for HIV as it causes almost one in three deaths in Botswana. Areas of focus for the national HIV program include high-quality prevention, care and treatment services; HIV counseling; blood safety and early infant diagnosis.
Evidence-based public health procedures are effecting change in Botswana for preventing HIV. The Botswana Combination Prevention Project evaluates the effect of proven HIV-prevention measures to reduce the number of new HIV infections over time.
Some procedures for prevention and treatment that have decreased the incidence of HIV cases. These include HIV testing, which positively changes behavior, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and antiretroviral treatment for those infected with HIV, which can cure the patient while also preventing the transmission of the disease to another partner.
Additionally, the CDC works to strengthen healthcare systems in order to sustain an effective HIV program. Strengthening healthcare systems includes improving workforce development, disease surveillance and epidemiology, health information systems and program monitoring.
As of 2012, 96 percent of men, women and children in Botswana in need of HIV treatment received it. The mother-to-child transmission rate of HIV has decreased to less than 4 percent. Botswana has integrated their TB and HIV programs, which improved the quality, impact and coverage of both programs.
Education for prevention and access to these services are very important. These steps for prevention and treatment, however, require resources that developing countries like Botswana do not have. This is where foreign aid strongly benefits a developing country. Through PEPFAR and the establishment of CDC Botswana, the U.S. government has had a significant impact in ameliorating common diseases in Botswana, specifically HIV. Foreign aid will continue to be a key component in tackling global health crises.
– Christiana Lano
Photo: Flickr
How to Help People in North Korea
North Korea’s government spends more than 20 percent of its GDP on defense while more than half of its population lives in extreme poverty. As a result, one-third of children have stunted growth and thousands, if not millions, die of preventable starvation.
North Korea represses its citizens by censoring and restricting any information from outside the closed-off country. State propaganda leads North Koreans to believe the rest of the world is threatening and inferior. For crimes against the regime — real or perceived — an estimated 200,000 people work in abusive prison camps where torture and rape abound.
The vast amount of suffering in North Korea seems daunting, but there is hope. Here is how to help people in North Korea:
The North Korean government brainwashes residents to think it is doing a wonderful job protecting it from the outside world, despite struggling to feed, house and employ its people. It is possible to help free North Koreans from this manipulation by sending old flash drives to Flash Drives for Freedom. The nonprofit will erase what is on them and fill them with films, internet content and books. It works with South Korean partners to smuggle the drives into North Korea.According to Wired, these glimpses of outside information have the power to change North Koreans’ view of the U.S. and other nations the dictatorship has labeled as evil. Recognizing the regime’s lies can empower citizens to question the legitimacy of the regime and encourage others to do the same.
Multiple agencies worked for years to relieve suffering in North Korea. One of them, the Defense Forum Foundation, began working for human rights in the country in 1996. The Defense Forum Foundation helped establish Free North Korea Radio, a radio program broadcast into North Korea with messages from defectors. The organization also rescued hundreds of North Korean refugees and created annual events to spread awareness and encourage people to act.Another organization, Liberty in North Korea, rescued more than 600 refugees by providing safe passage over thousands of miles of China and Southeast Asia. According to its website, $3,000 is all it takes to rescue and resettle one refugee.The North Korea Freedom Coalition could also use donor support. It coordinates with its many partners to get food aid to North Koreans, pressure the government to release abductees and more. It helped establish North Korea Freedom Day in 2004, which garnered public and political support for the North Korea Human Rights Act, signed into law that year.
The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives each has a bill reauthorizing and strengthening the North Korean Human Rights Act. Passage of these bills would ensure the U.S. continues working to help people in North Korea — both those who stay and those who flee the country.The Senate bill, for example, wants the U.S. government to expand private broadcasting inside North Korea to disseminate news and information contradictory to what citizens hear from propagandizing, state-controlled broadcasts.Another facet of both bills calls for the United States to urge China to stop returning North Korean defectors where they and their families face several forms of persecution, like sexual abuse and forced labor. They also mention that the United States should cooperate with countries that border North Korea to develop long-term plans of “humanitarian assistance and human rights promotion and to effectively assimilate North Korean defectors.”Also included in the bills is a section for the continuation of supporting North Korean refugees with resettlement in the United States, if that is their choice. Only around 200 North Koreans resettled in the United States. An estimated 100,000 to 300,000 North Koreans have defected since 1953. Several thousand live in China in fear of deportation.
Many people call North Korea the most miserable and repressed society in the world. But there are ways to help people in North Korea.
– Kristen Reesor
Photo: Flickr
Disparities in Water Quality in Gabon
Eighty-seven percent of Gabon’s 1.8 million people live in urban areas, such as Libreville and Port-Gentil. As the urban population increases, so does the demand for a fixed water supply. Gabon’s low capacity for drinking water production and lack of storage and maintenance facilities leads to frequent water shortages in Libreville and other urban areas.
Water quality in Gabon is different in urban and rural areas. In 2015, 92 percent of urban areas and 59 percent of rural areas had access to improved water resources. ‘Improved’ drinking sources include piped water on property and other improved sources of drinking water, according to the World Health Organization.
Despite its status as an upper middle-income country, 34 percent of the population lives in poverty. Rural, poverty stricken areas suffer deprivation from drinking water resources in Gabon, and 58 percent of the population does not have access to improved sanitation facilities. In 2015, sanitation rates in urban and rural areas were 43 and 32 percent, respectively.
Access to sanitation facilities is very low in Gabon. Inadequate wastewater and rainwater networks and deficient solid waste management explain the disparity.
Inadequate sewage and waste management led to negative health outcomes. Insufficient sanitation and lack of access to improved water sources are associated with the increased risk of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), a class of infectious bacterial and parasitic diseases. In Gabon, a large proportion of the population is at risk of infection from soil-transmitted helminthiasis, lymphatic filariasis and schistosomiasis.
The infrastructure for drinking water and sanitation were identified as priority areas for reform in the Gabonese government’s 2016–2020 Country Strategy Paper. Long-term success for water and waste management requires understanding how wealth distribution and social gradients affect water quality in Gabon. The CSP addresses social and infrastructural issues and broadened the scope of the development plan. It plans to build a sustainable water and sanitation infrastructure.
– Gabrielle Doran
Photo: Flickr
10 Facts About Suriname Refugees
Suriname has come a long way since the thousands of refugees seeking shelter elsewhere as the civil war continued. These 10 facts about Suriname refugees show that the country has reduced reason to house stateless persons, and that positive developments and achievements in refugee situations has strengthened its people.
– Olivia Cyr
Photo: Pixabay
Bleach Bottle Lights Bring Light to Poor Countries
A project called Liter of Light has a solution. Its creators discovered that plastic bottles filled with a mixture of water and bleach “refract the light from outdoors into the house, lighting up much like a light bulb.” When placed on the roof of a house the bottle becomes an adequate and inexpensive source of light.
The project began in 2012 in the Philippines with the nonprofit MyShelter Foundation. The bleach bottle lights were an original idea of Alfredo Moser who shared it with the MyShelter Foundation, eventually developing into the Liter of Light project.
The life expectancy of one of these bleach bottle lights is five years. Since the concoction is simply one liter of water and three milliliters of bleach, it is cheap and easy to replace.
By using plastic bottles for the bleach bottle lights, communities reduce the amount of garbage they produce. Per the World Economic Forum, “eight million tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year.” In places like the Philippines where the number of disposed of plastic bottles is one of the highest in the world, the Liter of Light project kills two birds with one stone.
Since the bottle only works with sunlight, Liter of Light came up with a solution for night time. Huffington Post stated, “by slipping a test tube with a small LED light bulb into the bottle, which in turn is hooked up to a mini-solar panel, the bottle can still refract light during the day, but then also be used as a light bulb at night.”
The overall goal for the Liter of Light project is to provide poor countries with a sustainable alternative to electricity in homes with the bleach bottle light. This is crucial because they cannot afford to pay for expensive repairs when the country is struggling financially. Bleach and water are much more accessible in the communities than electrical materials.
As of now, the bleach bottle lights provide a source of light to homes in 15 different countries. The bottles containing the LED light bulbs are the most popular amongst the 850,000 homes that rely on them.
The Liter of Light project won the 2015 Zayed Future Energy Prize and the 2014-2015 World Habitat Award for its work installing bleach bottle lights into hundreds of thousands of homes. The United Nations now uses the technology in its UNHCR camps. Within the next three years, the organization hopes to reach one million people and brighten up the world.
– Mackenzie Fielder
Photo: Liter of Light
Employment Reform Among Causes of Poverty in Germany
Agenda 2010 was created to accelerate economic growth, create jobs and ultimately reduce unemployment. Current data on Germany may seem to support the claim that Agenda 2010 has worked well and that perhaps isn’t one of the causes of poverty in Germany. The bureau of labor statistics sites a continual drop in unemployment, reaching a low of 3.9 percent in April 2017, and World Bank figures show a gross domestic product of $3.467 trillion for Germany in 2016.
The way Agenda 2010 achieved those results was by creating a new, flexible, exclusively part-time employment structure. The motivation was that an employed citizen was better than an unemployed one. To create this new type of temporary work, Agenda 2010 deregulated to encourage employers to hire part-time workers.
Agenda 2010 focused on getting the unemployed back to work. It also created what is known in Germany as the mini-job, a part-time employment that pays 450 euros a month tax-free. As the data shows, employers hired, and the unemployment rate dropped, but this system has caused poverty in Germany to reach its highest since reunification.
German news site DW reported a German study that classified 12.5 million Germans as poor. The poor are classified in Germany by earning less than 60 percent of the median household income, which for a single household is around 900 euros a month. Although Germans are employed, those employed in mini-jobs earn 450 euros, half of the median household income of a single household.
The Federal Agency of Statistics for Labor in Germany cites 7.5 million Germans working mini-jobs and two million Germans working two jobs. The causes of poverty in Germany can be directly linked to Agenda 2010, which created more employment opportunity while also creating a new working poor. During an interview with Euronews, Dierk Hirschel, chief economist of Verdi, spoke on the issue, “The problem we face in Germany is that one in five workers are paid less than ten euros an hour, they are the “working poor.”
– Yosef Flowers
Photo: Google
Threats to Human Rights in Armenia
Sakunts is the director of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office (HCA-Vanazdor). HCA-Vanazdor is a high-profile defender of human rights in Armenia. Sakunts received a highly specific death threat via Facebook, which illustrates that the issue of human rights is hotly debated in Armenia. The Armenian government’s record with respect to human rights is somewhat uneven. In 2008, the government pledged to combat violence against women. However, no legislation was passed since. For example, there is no law criminalizing domestic violence.
LGBTQ populations also do not have anti-discrimination protection or legal protection against hate speech. The lack of legislation makes it difficult for women and LGBTQ groups to find a legal solution to advocate for their rights. Peaceful protesters are sometimes met with excessive force and with ill treatment in custody.
Founding Parliament, a radical group opposed to the government, seized a police station in the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, killing a policeman and taking several others hostage on July 17, 2016. The gunmen eventually surrendered on July 31. Yet the seizure of the police station proved to be a catalyst for protest movement against the government.
In late July, peaceful protesters were showing their support for Founding Parliament in the same neighborhood of the seized police station. Without warning the protesters, police fired stun grenades into the crowd. The protesters sustained first and second-degree burns and fragmentation wounds. Other protesters were beaten with clubs.
Journalists covering the protest were warned by the police, but some journalists suffered the after-effects of stun grenades fired specifically at them. Protest leaders and participants were detained, with the authorities citing criminal charges leveled against them. Detainees were held up to 12 hours without documentation. Authorities relied primarily on police testimony to press criminal charges. Detainees were also denied access to lawyers and were not permitted to inform relatives about their detentions.
The explosive events of July 2016 demonstrate the palpable tensions between Armenian citizens and the government. Fortunately, groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch continue to report violations of human rights in Armenia. Generating awareness for human rights issues can pave a path towards finding legal, political and more permanent solutions for such human rights violations.
– Smriti Krishnan
Photo: Pixabay
Improving Access to Education in Cambodia
Reforms in 1996 solidified the general educational pattern of six-three-three, meaning six years of primary education, three years of lower secondary education and three years of upper secondary education. The government runs the public education system, but there are several opportunities for private education in Cambodia.
In 2014, the government formulated an Education Strategic Plan to improve the education system and subsequently stimulate the economy. The plan focuses on equal access to education, increasing the quality of the school curriculum, and encouraging teachers and school faculty towards excellence in their roles as educators.
Eighteen percent of the national budget has been dedicated to education. These efforts from the Cambodian government have been met with great success. As of 2015, 98 percent of school-age age were enrolled in some form of school. Female students comprised 48 percent of this statistic. In the last decade, almost 1,000 schools have been built and school resources have been significantly expanded.
While education in Cambodia has enjoyed great success, the country still has many areas they need to improve. The student-to-teacher ratio is very high compared to other nearby countries, and teachers are not paid enough to support themselves. Forty-seven percent of third-grade students are unable to read at a third-grade level, and the overall illiteracy rate is incredibly high.
With the government’s resurgence in attention towards the education system, education in Cambodia has flourished in the past decade. While there are many aspects that still need work, the country is on the right track and will be rewarded with improvements in the economy and reduced poverty levels as a result of a strengthened education program.
– Julia McCartney
Photo: Flickr
Causes of Common Diseases in Botswana
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the deadliest common diseases in Botswana and the percent of deaths for which they are responsible are the following: HIV (32 percent), malaria (7 percent), tuberculosis (6 percent), diarrheal diseases (4 percent), cancer (4 percent), pre-term birth complications (2 percent), Ischemic Heart Disease (2 percent), stroke (2 percent) and STDs (2 percent).
The top three common diseases in Botswana — HIV, malaria and TB — are all communicable diseases, meaning that they are transmitted through contact. Communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional diseases comprise the deadliest category of diseases in Botswana. The next two categories of diseases with the highest mortality rates are non-communicable diseases and injuries, respectively. Cardiovascular diseases and cancer account for nearly half of deaths from non-communicable diseases. The top causes of deadly injuries in Botswana are self-harm and interpersonal violence, unintentional injuries and transport injuries, respectively.
Unsafe sex is the most prevalent risk factor for deadly diseases, accounting for about 60 percent of behavioral risk factors for contracting a deadly disease. It is by far the most common risk factor for HIV/AIDs and TB. Unsafe water, sanitation and handwashing habits account for 46.3 percent of environmental risk factors, followed by air pollution accounting for 37.1 percent of environmental risk factors. These are the most common risk factors for contracting diarrheal and infectious diseases. Alcohol and drug use is also a prevalent risk factor for contracting a deadly disease, such as HIV through needle sharing, or for certain injuries.
Several projects have been implemented for disease prevention and treatment, specifically for HIV as it causes almost one in three deaths in Botswana. Areas of focus for the national HIV program include high-quality prevention, care and treatment services; HIV counseling; blood safety and early infant diagnosis.
Evidence-based public health procedures are effecting change in Botswana for preventing HIV. The Botswana Combination Prevention Project evaluates the effect of proven HIV-prevention measures to reduce the number of new HIV infections over time.
Some procedures for prevention and treatment that have decreased the incidence of HIV cases. These include HIV testing, which positively changes behavior, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and antiretroviral treatment for those infected with HIV, which can cure the patient while also preventing the transmission of the disease to another partner.
Additionally, the CDC works to strengthen healthcare systems in order to sustain an effective HIV program. Strengthening healthcare systems includes improving workforce development, disease surveillance and epidemiology, health information systems and program monitoring.
As of 2012, 96 percent of men, women and children in Botswana in need of HIV treatment received it. The mother-to-child transmission rate of HIV has decreased to less than 4 percent. Botswana has integrated their TB and HIV programs, which improved the quality, impact and coverage of both programs.
Education for prevention and access to these services are very important. These steps for prevention and treatment, however, require resources that developing countries like Botswana do not have. This is where foreign aid strongly benefits a developing country. Through PEPFAR and the establishment of CDC Botswana, the U.S. government has had a significant impact in ameliorating common diseases in Botswana, specifically HIV. Foreign aid will continue to be a key component in tackling global health crises.
– Christiana Lano
Photo: Flickr
Causes of Poverty in Zimbabwe
When looking at the causes of poverty in Zimbabwe, it is necessary to take the effects of the 2008 financial crisis into account. As a result of the crisis, Zimbabwe saw its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decline by 17 percent. By comparison, the GDP growth rate for other African countries was five percent.
Although Zimbabwe made great progress to recover from the 2008 crisis, its GDP growth rate is declining since 2013. According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), this decline is the result of stalling investments and adverse climate conditions that hurt the agricultural sector. Nearly 60 percent of Zimbabwe’s workforce is employed in the agricultural sector.
Drought and Poverty in Zimbabwe
As a result of the 2015-2016 drought that affected most of southern Africa, the rural poor have become more vulnerable to the loss of both their food security and their livelihoods. A 2016 study by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) shows that approximately 4.1 million Zimbabweans, nearly a quarter of the population, face food and nutrition insecurity due to the drought.
ZimVAC is a consortium of the Zimbabwean government, agencies of the United Nations, NGOs and other international organizations. Formed in 2002 to assess the issues facing Zimbabwe’s poor, it is overseen by the Food and Nutrition Council of Zimbabwe which works to find multi-sector solutions to the country’s food insecurity.
Some of the groups heavily impacted by food insecurity are children and pregnant or lactating women. Zimbabwe has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the region as well as one of the highest rates of HIV globally, at approximately 15 percent as of 2014. Women and children living in food insecure homes are HIV prone and either already or in danger of becoming malnourished.
Children under the age of two that do not benefit from optimal breastfeeding are more likely to contract diarrhea or pneumonia. They may also not develop to their full potential. Acutely malnourished children under the age of five are more likely to contract diseases that require intensive care.
Drought and reduced rainfall also negatively affected the quality and availability of water. Almost half of households lack sufficient water for their livestock. Eighty-one percent reported having insufficient water for their crops. Zimbabwe’s average rainfall is projected to drop by 10 percent by the end of the century. IFAD asserts that the rehabilitation and maintenance of irrigation systems must be of the utmost importance to stabilize agricultural production. Improving irrigation systems would minimize crop failure, raise household incomes and increase food security for rural smallholder farmers.
To understand the causes of poverty in Zimbabwe, the poor performance of the country’s manufacturing industry must also be explored. Manufacturing surveys estimate that industrial capacity utilization decreased from 57 percent in 2011 to 36.3 percent in 2014. This is mainly because of an erratic power supply, a lack of capital, higher input costs, antiquated machinery and deficiencies in infrastructure.
IFAD believes that by prioritizing climate-smart, efficient agricultural production and investment in infrastructure and industrial capacity building, the causes of poverty in Zimbabwe will be diminished.
– Amanda Lauren Quinn
Photo: Flickr
The First Reported Case of HIV Remission in Africa
HIV patients are treated with a combination of antiretroviral drugs to prevent the development of AIDS. Treatment reduces the amount of viral load in the body and bodily fluids. It can also protect the immune system from infections and cancer.
The child in remission took part in a clinical trial called Children with HIV Early Antiretroviral Therapy (CHER) along with 143 other infants. Treatment lasted for 40 weeks with the hope that the virus would reach undetectable levels and of achieving a higher volume of HIV remission in Africa. Of all HIV-affected children, 91 percent live in Africa.
While the virus can reach low enough levels to avoid detection in the blood, there is still not a cure for HIV. But doctors are learning that there is a correlation between early treatment and long-term remission.
According to the World Health Organization, poverty-stricken countries experience HIV epidemics at a much higher volume than wealthy countries. With less money, it is hard to get quality treatment, if any treatment at all. This increases the potential for epidemics by allowing transmission. Poverty is decreasing in the area, but 60 to 65 percent of wealth still lies with the wealthiest 10 percent.
South Africa spends more than $1.5 billion annually on HIV and AIDS programs to treat seven million people.
In 2013, the “Mississippi baby” was in remission for two years after early aggressive treatment. However, in 2014 the child had to restart treatment after the virus reemerged. Another child in Vancouver was in remission for 11 years following a failed six-week treatment and a six-year, four-drug treatment.
The benefits of long-term remission are obvious. Symptoms of the drugs subside and the financial burden of drugs and treatment lessen. The cases of remission are encouraging, but the widespread effects of early treatment are still unknown.
“Further study is needed to learn how to induce long-term HIV remission in infected babies,” Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a news release. “However, this new case strengthens our hope that by treating HIV-infected children for a brief period beginning in infancy, we may be able to spare them the burden of life-long therapy and the health consequences of long-term immune activation typically associated with HIV disease.”
– Madeline Boeding
Photo: Flickr