Archive for category: Health

Information and stories on health topics.

The Role of Mental Health in Poverty

The Role of Mental Health in PovertyOn the Mental Health page of the World Health Organization (WHO), there is a quote from Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations. Annan said, “The biggest enemy of health in the developing world is poverty.” This is a strong statement that reflects the need for more mental health awareness in the fight against poverty.

In 2010, the WHO published a report about the importance of mental health in poverty and development. In order to properly help people out of poverty, groups must take mental health into account in all aspects of life and society. Research has shown that poverty negatively affects one’s mental health and affects one’s ability to do day-to-day tasks. As a result, mental health issues occur more often in the poor. For example, depression is more frequent in people of low socioeconomic status. Mental health needs to be addressed with the same focus given to physical health, especially in lower-income and vulnerable communities.

The WHO’s Mental Health policy and service development department works on issues related to disabilities and mental health issues, specifically for those in poverty. Individuals with mental health issues are more likely to be marginalized, so the department is working to publish reports and advocate for more awareness of this subject. One method is via the WHO QualityRights Initiative, which is “reforming mental health services and promoting the human rights of people with psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities around the world.”

There are other examples of groups working to improve mental health around the globe. For example, “BasicNeeds, an NGO working in the area of mental health and development, assessed economic outcomes of people with mental disabilities in their North India Programme, which promotes livelihoods and treatment and care.” Many groups and people around the world are trying to get countries to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Mental health needs to be a focus in the development of new and existing societies. Organizations like the WHO need to continue leading the way with its initiatives related to mental health in poverty. If groups focus on mental health and its connection with poverty, then people and their lives will be impacted in a more positive way.

– Emilia Beuger

Photo: Flickr

Reducing Maternal Mortality in Central African Republic

Maternal Mortality in Central African RepublicIn a country slightly smaller than Texas, the Central African Republic sits in a region that leads the world in pregnancy-related deaths. The maternal mortality rate stands at 890 per 100,000 live-births. Maternal mortality in the Central African Republic is a tragic reality that puts the health and survival of children at risk and places strain on economic development.

One of the major contributors to the mortality rate is a lack of accessible health centers. High teenage pregnancy rates increase the risk of complications. Long distances to health centers increase the impact of those complications. Even when women are able to reach a health center or clinic they are ill-prepared to deal with complications like hemorrhaging or lack the equipment to perform C-sections.

Due to the inaccessibility of viable and prepared health centers, many women opt to give birth at home. Women from poorer communities are more likely to opt for home-birth in response to a lack of transportation or qualified health facilities. With less than two licensed mid-wives per 10,000 people, home-births come with increased risks of complications and death.

Additionally, understanding maternal mortality in the Central African Republic is complicated by a lack of accurate data concerning the cause of death. Even countries with well-functioning civil registration and vital statistics systems (CRVS) have deaths misclassified as maternal or otherwise. Improved data collection could help better statistical research and in turn improve solution-based action.

The most troubling aspect of maternal mortality is that many of these deaths are preventable. Giving birth in the presence of trained personnel is one of the most basic ways to keep mothers safe. Research has shown that giving birth in a facility reduces mortality rates. Here are some suggested solutions to reduce the maternal mortality rate in the Central African Republic:

  • Governments can adopt cash transfers to mothers or reproductive health voucher programs which have proved successful in select districts in Kenya. Among the poorest women, facility deliveries and postnatal care doubled after similar introductions.
  • Nigeria employed midwives through their Midwives Service Scheme which trains retired, unemployed or newly graduated midwives to work in underserved areas. The initiative increased the use of prenatal care by 60 percent and increased the number of births attended by health professionals by half.
  • Providing more reliable transportation at affordable costs using vouchers or cash transfers giving women the option to travel to present health centers.

Medical teams from the Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA) are working to support three local health centers in Boda. The clinics provide free prenatal consultation and help with deliveries. They also have midwives that offer family planning and make house visits to ensure new mothers are healthy. ALIMA is funded by the EU’s humanitarian aid department (ECHO). Since the program began in 2014, nearly 13,000 women have benefitted from prenatal care, 3,100 women have given birth at the facilities, and an average of 115 pregnant women are hospitalized each month.

Maternal mortality in the Central African Republic can be decreased drastically with efforts to give access to mothers in need. The people of CAR are in need of better maternity care and with these basic initiatives, hundreds of lives could be spared each year, along with better circumstances for children and economic growth in communities.

– Rebekah Korn

Photo: Flickr

Madonna’s Raising Malawi Constructs New Medical Facilities

Madonna's Raising MalawiAfter visiting the small, poor African country of Malawi in 2006, internationally known singer Madonna started the charity Raising Malawi, and the cause has been growing ever since. The pop star has adopted four children from the small African nation and she visits the country twice a year. Madonna’s Raising Malawi works on issues related to health, poverty, and education.

Raising Malawi’s most recent program is the construction of a new pediatric surgery unit at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre. Madonna announced that it would be called the Mercy James Institute of Pediatric Surgery and Intensive Care, named after one of Madonna’s adopted children. In June 2017, furniture and equipment started being moved into the new unit. Madonna’s children helped paint murals at the new hospital.

The new construction will help the hospital “double the number of surgeries performed on children each year and will provide an intensive care unit which will increase the chance of survival after critical surgeries.” This is a program that is needed in Malawi because 50 percent of the population is under the age of 15. With such a shortage of pediatricians and pediatric doctors, child care and access to it are extremely important to child development. Raising Malawi has worked hard to expand pediatric care opportunities in the small country.

For Madonna’s birthday, she started a hashtag called #STOCKTHEWARD, which asked people to donate certain services and items for the new unit. For example, $500 pays a nurse’s salary for a month, while $200 pays for 10 blankets for the ward. If a donor gives $25,000, this will pay to ship a container of medicines not available in Malawi to the ward. Madonna’s Raising Malawi is allowing her to literally help these children grow up healthy and happy.

In addition to this newer program, Raising Malawi promotes education through scholarships and grassroots soccer, and partners with others to build schools. Also, Madonna’s organization works within the community as well. The orphanage she adopted some of her children from is called Home of Hope, and Raising Malawi has supported the orphanage financially for years. Madonna also helped raise awareness for the AIDS epidemic through a film she wrote entitled “I Am Because We Are.”

Overall, Raising Malawi has helped children in all aspects of their life, whether it be through education, healthcare or their community. The organization is able to help children in many different parts of their lives, which will lead to real change in these children’s lives.

– Emilia Beuger

Photo: Flickr

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How to Aid People With Depression in the Developing World

Depression in the Developing WorldDepression is one of the most common conditions affecting Americans each year. In a country as developed as the U.S., health professionals can readily provide high-quality care to patients struggling with depression. Prescription medications have proven successful in treating and helping patients manage their depression, as have therapy and counseling programs. This is unfortunately not the reality for people affected by the same mental illness in the developing world.

It is estimated that 350 million people suffer from depression worldwide, yet less than 10 percent of people in developing countries have access to adequate treatment and care options. A study conducted in rural India found that just under 40 percent of the entire population suffered from some form of mild to moderate depression. Another study conducted in Pakistan found that 50 percent of all women living in rural areas suffered from some form of depression or anxiety. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that patients who had previously endured a traumatic event – such as conflict or fleeing their countries as refugees – had a significantly increased risk of experiencing recurring depression.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized the severity of depression and its nature as a global health crisis. Conditions that commonly exist in developing countries, such as social and political instability, armed conflict, refugee crises, economic instability and food instability are all extremely high-risk triggers for anxiety and depression disorders. According to the WHO, a disproportionate number of the world’s medical professionals practice in developed countries. There is far greater availability of healthcare in places where it is least needed.

Depression is a disease that can limit a patient’s functioning and cause them a great deal of discomfort and suffering. The WHO has listed depression on their Mental Health Gap Action Program, and as a result, they aim to curb the rising number of individuals suffering from depression in the developing world. The plan is to provide adequate training and assistance to people who might not have extensive healthcare backgrounds so that they can better assist people suffering from depression in developing nations.

There is a real and dire need to determine ways in which to combat depression in the developing world. With the support of the international aid community, organizations such as WHO can implement aid strategies to hopefully bring an end to the disproportionately high number of untreated depression patients living in the developing world.

– Tyler Troped

Photo: Flickr

Snakebite Envenoming: The Newest Neglected Tropical Disease

Snakebite EnvenomingSnakebite envenoming is defined as the possible life-threatening effects resulting from the injection of toxic venom after a snakebite from a venomous snake or from a snake “spiting,” venom into the eyes. Currently, there are about 3,000 species of snakes worldwide. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has placed a priority on 250 of them for the high medical risks they pose to humans. Further, the WHO is concerned because these highly venomous snakes are dispersed around the world and can be found in approximately 160 countries. Every year, nearly five million people suffer snakebites, resulting in about 2.7 million cases of envenoming, which can cause serious medical consequences, including amputations and other permanent disabilities.

Tropical and sub-tropical regions are of particular concern when it comes to snakebites. Generally speaking, following the latitudinal lines around the globe, the highest concentrations of highly venomous snakes are situated in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. To compound the problem, most countries suffering from the presence of these deadly creatures happen to be facing a second challenge: poverty.

“This study, the first of its kind, unequivocally demonstrates that snakebite envenoming is a disease of the poor. The negative association between snakebite deaths and government expenditure on health confirms that the burden of mortality is highest in those countries least able to deal with the considerable financial cost of snakebite,” writes Robert Harrison, a researcher and published scientist. In essence, the risk of being bitten by a snake is geographically located in the same places where medical treatment is either unavailable or inadequate. Worse yet, Harrison wrote that every year, more people die in the tropics as a result of snakebites than they do from some of the most recognized tropical diseases. However, the WHO has recently changed this.

On June 9, 2017, the WHO classified snake envenoming as a Category A Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD). By this adjustment of status, snakebite envenoming is now eligible for new funding and for a much broader research platform, including collecting epidemiological findings to create a more universal “catalog” of anti-venoms that are more accessible and which affected populations are more educated on.

Moreover, the WHO is capitalizing on what information has been gathered by creating a categorical reference online. By equipping people with geographic-specific risks, hopefully less people will need access to the anti-venom collaborative. Overall, the WHO has made the snakebite issue a priority, and is subsequently treating it like it would treat any other NTD.

By providing free resources for reference and making a status change for a disease, the necessary funds and research are available for researchers to collaborate and problem-solve. With so many snakes and species-specific venoms, the global community needs to rally behind the WHO in order to fight back safely against the risks snakes pose to those who – quite literally – cannot afford the bite and the envenoming that results.

– Taylor Elkins

Photo: Flickr

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Life Expectancy On the Rise in Africa

Life Expectancy in AfricaLife expectancy is one of the methods used to measure health in various countries. Countries with low life expectancies usually have problems maintaining health and longevity, while countries with higher life expectancies generally have better healthcare and longevity. Africa is a continent that has long had a very low life expectancy; however, in recent years the life expectancy in Africa has fortunately been on the rise.

Since 2000, the average life expectancy in African countries has increased from 20 percent to 42 percent. That is the biggest increase in life expectancy recorded in that time frame in all regions around the world. One of the biggest life expectancy increases has occurred in Malawi. Malawi’s life expectancy in 2000 was 44.1 years. In 2014, it was reported that the new life expectancy in Malawi was 62.7 years – a 42.2 percent increase.

Health and welfare improvements are one of the main reasons why life expectancy in Africa has been on the rise. One of the biggest health issues that Africa has been plagued with is the HIV/AIDS epidemic. HIV/AIDS has tragically claimed many lives in Africa, which is a large reason why life expectancy was so low. Treating these diseases was difficult at the height of the epidemic, so many Africans unfortunately died. Because HIV/AIDS has been such a huge issue, there has been a lot of research done to help alleviate the problem. Improvements in medication and treatment have helped Africans and others around the world combat the AIDS epidemic. Not only is there now medicine available to help suppress the disease, but this medicine has become much more affordable for all people, including those in developing countries.

Although an epidemic, HIV/AIDS was not the only problem that African countries suffered from. Malaria was also an issue that affected life expectancy in Africa. However, strides have since been made to alleviate that issue as well. The World Health Organization (WHO) in Africa has reported that the rate of malaria has decreased by 66 percent since the year 2000. More importantly, malaria in African children under the age of five has decreased by 71 percent. This is important because more children are surviving in Africa. Prior to these improvements, HIV/AIDS and malaria have claimed many lives of children under the age of five. Since healthcare – and access to it – has increased in Africa, more children are surviving past age five. Once these kids clear the first five years of their lives, it is much more likely that they will grow up to reach the age of 60.

Life expectancy in Africa has increased and things are only looking to get better. Not only has the life expectancy dramatically increased, it is beginning to look like malaria may be eliminated by 2020 and HIV/AIDS by 2030. This will surely serve to further increase the life expectancy of African countries, as well as elsewhere around the world.

– Daniel Borjas

Photo: Flickr

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Obesity in Resource-Poor Nations

Obesity in Resource-Poor NationsThe state of physical activity – or perhaps inactivity – is presenting researchers with a new problem in an age of widespread poverty. Over two billion people are currently obese or overweight, globally. Subsequently, one in 10 deaths are the direct result of health issues stemming from inactivity and obesity.

Inactivity in high-income countries is not a novel concept. When there are means of automatic transportation, a market or grocer nearby and a population that has access to vast white-collar work opportunities, inactivity – and its resulting obesity – existing at an elevated rate is not suspect. However, obesity in resource-poor nations is now concerning global leaders. When a country cannot afford basic needs without help, how will it deal with increased healthcare costs associated with poor health?

Brazilian researcher, Dr. Pedro C. Hallal, recently sought out to answer just how inactive the world is becoming. In 2012, Hallal compiled answers to 155 population surveys from 122 different countries, with the purpose of collecting data about people’s general health and lifestyle choices. What Hallal discovered was that severely impoverished countries, like Swaziland and Dominican Republic, ranked at the top of the list of the most inactive countries, alongside some of the most affluent countries.

According to Hallal’s research, Malta ranked at the very top, with nearly 72 percent of the population reporting high levels of inactivity. However, the Pacific Islands, Middle East and Americas lead the way, generally. For comparison, the U.S. had an inactivity rate of 41 percent. The countries with the most commendable numbers were well under 10 percent; these include Bangladesh, Mozambique, Benin and Cambodia.

Sub-Saharan Africa demonstrates, though, why physical activity is so essential, even when wages and higher living standards cannot be guaranteed. Noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes and cancer, thrive in resource-poor countries such as Kenya. While these resource-poor nations are having a tough time ensuring a balanced diet, the rapid urbanization of these same countries is compounding the negative health effects and increasing the number of health-related deaths.

A healthy lifestyle ultimately depends on an active one. This does not mean that gyms need to be constructed immediately, nor does foreign aid need to fund exercise equipment before meeting basic needs. Rather, one important thing that can be done is simply encouraging people to be more active. The U.N. has intervened, with its Sustainable Development Goals placing a focus on poor eating choices combined with physical inactivity, and the need to improve the rates of obesity that result from these choices.

However, the solution must be a societal one. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, noted that “different countries have different issues… You need to mobilize (their) whole society to tackle the problem… it’s not just a medical problem.”

The benefits of a healthier nation are also not a novel concept. When people are physically active, the heart and lungs experience increased efficiency, cholesterol levels go down, muscles strengthen, blood pressure problems decline and, overall, individuals makes themselves less susceptible to major illnesses. There are no inherent risks in encouraging people to walk a little more and have their kids play outside for 30 minutes, aside from a possible scraped knee or other minor accident.

The rising level of obesity in resource-poor nations should concern the countries experiencing it, along with the countries that are providing foreign aid. While not every nation can adjust the foods available, individuals in resource-poor nations can still make choices about their physical activity in order to prevent obesity. Neglecting to address this issue will only open the door to more medical expenses for countries that cannot afford to run themselves financially. Obesity is preventable, but it takes societal motivation and accountability to help prevent it.

– Taylor Elkins

Photo: Flickr

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Top 10 Facts About Poverty in Africa

Poverty in Africa Facts Statistics Suffering Poverty Line
How bad is poverty in Africa? The situation is improving, but Africa remains the poorest continent on Earth. But what many people may not know are the effects of poverty in Africa—including hunger, disease and a lack of basic necessities.

 

Leading Facts About Poverty in Africa

 

  1. Seventy-five percent of the world’s poorest countries are located in Africa, including Zimbabwe, Liberia and Ethiopia. The Central African Republic ranked the poorest in the world with a GDP per capita of $656 in 2016.
  1. According to Gallup World, in 2013, the 10 countries with the highest proportion of residents living in extreme poverty were all in sub-Saharan Africa. Extreme poverty is defined as living on $1.25 or less a day. In 2010, 414 million people were living in extreme poverty across sub-Saharan Africa. According to the World Bank, those living on $1.25 a day accounted for 48.5 percent of the population in that region in 2010.
  1. Approximately one in three people living in sub-Saharan Africa are undernourished. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimated that 239 million people (around 30 percent of the population) in sub-Saharan Africa were hungry in 2010. This is the highest percentage of any region in the world. In addition, the U.N. Millennium Project reported that over 40 percent of all Africans are unable to regularly obtain sufficient food.
  1. In sub-Saharan Africa, 589 million people live without electricity. As a result, a staggering 80 percent of the population relies on biomass products such as wood, charcoal and dung in order to cook.
  1. Of the 738 million people globally who lack access to clean water, 37 percent are living in sub-Saharan Africa. Poverty in Africa results in more than 500 million people suffering from waterborne diseases. According to the U.N. Millennium Project, more than 50 percent of Africans have a water-related illness like cholera.
  1. Every year, sub-Saharan Africa misses out on about $30 billion as productivity is compromised by water and sanitation problems. This amount accounts for approximately five percent of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP), exceeding the total amount of foreign aid sent to sub-Saharan Africa in 2003.
  1. Due to continuing violence, conflict and widespread human rights abuses, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that 18 million people are of concern to the agency, including stateless people and returnees.
  1. Fewer than 20 percent of African women have access to education. Uneducated African women are twice as likely to contract AIDS and 50 percent less likely to immunize their children. Meanwhile, the children of African women with at least five years of schooling have a 40 percent higher chance of survival.
  1. Women in sub-Saharan Africa are more than 230 times more likely to die during childbirth or pregnancy than women in North America. Approximately one in 16 women living in sub-Saharan African will die during childbirth or pregnancy; only one in 4,000 women in North America will.
  1. More than one million people, mostly children under the age of five, die every year from malaria. Malaria deaths in Africa alone account for 90 percent of all malaria deaths worldwide. Eighty percent of these victims are African children. The U.N. Millennium Project has calculated that a child in Africa dies from malaria every 30 seconds, or about 3,000 each day.

– Jordanna Packtor

Sources: Global Issues, World Hunger, World Bank, World Population Review, The Richest, Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, UNHCR, The Water Project, Gallup, Global Finance

 

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BRAC: Eliminating Extreme Poverty Through Innovation

Eliminating Extreme Poverty Through InnovationThe Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC) was formed in 1972 by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed. BRAC, the world’s largest NGO, is an excellent example of a nonprofit bringing transformation through strong business practices.

Today, BRAC reaches around 138 million poor spread over nine countries in Asia and Africa, and employs 125,000 people, primarily women. And yet, BRAC has remained quite unknown in the West. BRAC U.S. and BRAC U.K. were launched to spread awareness about its approach and mobilize its resources as well as raise funds for its fight to eliminate extreme poverty through innovation. It has created self-employment opportunity for 8.5 million people, educated over 3.8 million children from 66,000 of its schools, and given microloans to six million borrowers. Its approach is, “small is beautiful but big is necessary.”

What They Do

The following goals are listed on the official BRAC website:

  1. Improve well-being and resilience through disaster management and climate change, health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene.
  2. Assist economic development and social protection – agriculture and food security, microfinance, enterprises and investment, targeting the ultra-poor.
  3. Expand horizons of education, migration and skills development.
  4. Empower communities, women and disadvantaged, human rights and legal aid, with urban development.
  5. Support programs for governance, management and capacity building.

Social Innovation Lab (SIL)

BRAC believes in eliminating extreme poverty through innovation. SIL was formed to explore the best practices and ways of creating impact at scale and incubating new ideas. It began in the 1980s, when diarrhea was the biggest killer of children under the age of five. BRAC successfully made the most illiterate population in the world adopt oral rehydration therapy, teaching poor households to prepare homemade saline. Now, they continue to work toward bringing family planning to people despite social opposition.

BRAC has accomplished quite a lot through frugal innovation, making Bangladesh the fastest-growing mobile money market with 13 million users, and creating large-scale financial inclusion.

Current Efforts

Hundreds of Rohingya children are living in Cox’s Bazaar on the border of Bangladesh. BRAC has made initiatives to ensure prevention of widespread diseases, by providing 167,000 individuals with oral cholera vaccinations. 153,000 health services through 60 mobile health camps and 10 fixed camps have been provided to treat fever, pneumonia and diarrhea. BRAC is providing access to safe water, sanitation, child-friendly spaces and critical supplies.

The “poverty graduation” scheme offers a way of eliminating extreme poverty through innovation by tackling poverty as well as providing social confidence. Women are given an asset, usually livestock. In return, they must look after the animal, their children must be sent to school and they must save a small amount of income, along with a tiny stipend to cover their food needs. A BRAC member visits them regularly to assess improvements for two years, after which they are expected to “graduate,” or break the chain of ultra-poverty.

In the next five years, BRAC plans to empower 20 million people to gain access to resources. They are working toward completely eliminating extreme poverty through innovation by 2020 with integrated efforts.

– Tripti Sinha

Photo: Flickr

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The 10/90 Gap: How Can You Help?

10/90 GapThe 10/90 Gap is the idea that 10 percent of the world’s health research potential is devoted to conditions which make up 90 percent of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD). Activists who proposed the 10/90 gap claim that the majority of diseases present in the developing world have been neglected and research for these diseases has been drastically overlooked and underfunded.

As humanitarian issues like poverty and disease make their way into the international spotlight, there is real potential to change the responses to humanitarian crises.

Neglected Diseases

One disease which the World Health Organization claims has been overtly neglected is African trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness. The disease is present in 36 sub-Saharan African countries and is transmitted by the bite of a tsetse fly.

These flies are commonly present in rural areas where livestock, such as cattle, are kept in close proximity to humans. People in these rural areas are at the highest risk of contracting sleeping sickness, and these same people are more likely to face poverty and limited access to healthcare.

Outbreak and Epidemic

There have been multiple recorded epidemics of sleeping sickness, the most recent lasting from 1970 to 1990. After the end of this epidemic, efforts from the World Health Organization, national governments and nongovernmental organizations began to show promise that sleeping sickness could be controlled.

From 2000 to 2012, the number of new cases of sleeping sickness decreased by 73 percent, thanks in part to the contributions of the international aid community. In the World Health Organization’s Roadmap of neglected tropical diseases, the goal to eradicate sleeping sickness by the year 2020 was set. This goal is ambitious, but with the help of foreign aid and commitment of a more significant portion of the world’s health research potential, this neglected disease and others can be eradicated.

Make a Change

Sleeping sickness is only one of the many neglected tropical diseases which could be brought to an end with increased support from the international community. The simplest way to promote global health, and help to reduce the effects of the 10/90 Gap is to donate to an organization like the World Health Organization and the nonprofit affiliates they coordinate with on the ground.

The Global Disease Research group works to provide medical assistance in regions of the world where they are least accessible. One of the core ideas of the Global Disease Research group is that medicine should be universally available, and not be determined by politics, religion, race or beliefs. Donating time and resources to groups like this is the easiest way to reduce the discrepancy in global healthcare availability and research.

– Tyler Troped

Photo: Flickr