Archive for category: Health

Information and stories on health topics.

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Education and Menstruation in Uganda

Menstruation is a major reason for young girls in Uganda to miss school. Reasons for their absence stems from the stigma associated with “that time of the month,” a lack of sanitary napkins and the limited facilities available to students. Attending school while on their period forces girls to put their health at risk and chance being the subject of humiliation.

In an interview with a Guardian reporter, 16-year-old Lydia from Kampala, Uganda expressed why going to school during her period is difficult. She explained that some of the toilets did not have doors, so that if someone walked in, they would see her. Her school also has only four toilets for 2,000 students.  The toilets’ inability to flush or have water complicates the issue further, making menstruation in Uganda a problem in multiple ways.

In a recent study by SNV, officials report that girls miss between 8 to 24 days of school per year while menstruating.

Some girls attempt to prevent their clothing from being ruined by trying to absorb the blood with old cloth or old t-shirts, but these methods are not particularly successful. In another interview, Auma Milly commented that disposable pads are very expensive and are often not available in the more rural regions. Consequently, she felt embarrassed when she went to school and would soil her clothes so often that she chose not to attend.

In an attempt to address the problem regarding women’s sanitary needs, organizations including Save the Children, WaterAid, the Institute of Reproductive Health and local NGO Caritas Lira have begun to raise awareness and assist the cause.  Representatives from WaterAid commented on the importance of deconstructing the taboo regarding women’s health. The founder of 50 Cents. Period. described the battle as giving girls the basic right to hygiene. SNV and Caritas Lira have gone to schools in order to teach girls how to make reusable, affordable pads. Additionally, female Ugandan government officials have begun advocating for reduced taxes on sanitary napkins and improved facilities so that menstruation does not interfere with education.

– Jordyn Horowitz

 

Sources: The Guardian, The Guardian 2, UWASNET, 50 Cents Period, UWASNET, , SNV
Photo: A Global Village

 

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Shot@Life Provides Vaccinations for Impoverished Nations

The United Nations Foundation Shot@Life aims to give everyone the shot they need to live a happy and healthy life.

The Shot@Life campaign is almost exactly like it sounds. This campaign works with volunteers to provide much needed vaccinations to the extremely impoverished nations of the world through advocacy and donations.

Shot@Life educates, connects and empowers the American people to support vaccines, and vaccinations are one of the most cost-effective ways to save the lives of children in developing countries.

The campaign is basically a national call to action for a worthy global cause. The foundation rallies the American public and members of Congress to help them understand the fact that together they can save a child’s life every 20 seconds just by expanding access to vaccines.

The global foundation encourages the American public to learn about, advocate for and donate to provide vaccines. Shot@Life aims to noticeably decrease vaccine-preventable childhood deaths and give every child a shot at a healthy life within the next 10 years.

This campaign began in 1998 as a U.S. public charity by philanthropist Ted Turner. The Shot@Life campaign was created in order to build upon the U.N. Foundation’s 13-year legacy in global vaccine efforts as a leading partner in the Measles Initiative and Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

The Shot@Life campaign draws on their core abilities through advocacy, community-building and communications in order to raise awareness for their cause.

There are a few causes in which they already have seen excellent success: the campaigns Nothing But Nets and Girl Up.

The Nothing But Nets campaign is dedicated to providing insecticide treated mosquito nets to impoverished peoples in order to prevent the spread of malaria from mosquito bites.

The Girl Up campaign was started in order to provide aid to young girls in poverty-laden nations. This campaign utilizes the help of teenage leaders in order to raise awareness about how young girls are being treated around the world.

Shot@Life is also partnered with some of the largest names in fundraising, nonprofits and charities. They have received partnerships from UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Lions Club, to name a few.

This U.N. Foundation is uniquely positioned with in-house expertise and leadership to successfully bring Shot@Life to the awareness of an American audience.

The nonprofit also utilizes social media in participation with news companies and webpages to give a portion of its advertising revenue on each company’s behalf for each like or share an article or blog post receives.

Providing vaccinations to the world’s poor is another huge step in the process to end global poverty. Getting vaccinations mean children will not die from diseases that are preventable such as smallpox, measles, polio and tuberculosis.

More children living into adulthood could potentially slow the birthrates and stabilize the life-expectancy of the people living in African nations as well as extremely impoverished parts of India.

The Shot@Life campaign is dedicated to providing peace of mind to all the nations of the world.

– Cara Morgan

Sources: CDC, GirlUp, HuffPost 1, HufFPost 2, NothingButNets, Shot@Life
Photo: Children’s Futures

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Solutions For Ending Extreme Poverty By 2030

Currently, 1.3 billion people around the world live in extreme poverty. These people live on less than $1.25 per day, which roughly equates to enough money to purchase food, clean water and fuel for two meals.

The Development Committee of the World Bank set the goal of ending extreme poverty by the year 2030 and there has been some progress toward helping those who live in poverty. In the last 30 years, the proportion of the world’s population that lives below the global poverty line has been cut in half.

This was a steady decline, going from 52 percent in 1980, to 43 percent in 1990, 34 percent in 1999 and the latest numbers state that the percentage of people living in poverty was last at 21 percent.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people living in poverty has declined from 58 percent in 1999 to 49 percent in 2010.

“Eradicating poverty in a generation is an ambitious but feasible goal,” stated the United Nations General Assembly.

The decline from 1.9 billion to 1.3 billion is a great change, but there are still 1.3 billion people living without the means to properly support themselves and their families.

However, there are tools that can help elevate people from poverty, including education, health care, water and sanitation, economic security and child participation.

When children receive a quality education, they gain the knowledge and life skills that they need to break the cycle of poverty. Studies have shown that a better-educated workforce, along with a highly trained workforce, is more likely to enjoy higher earnings. This can also allow them to access better healthcare.

Poverty and poor health are “inextricably” linked. The causes of poor health for those around the world can be rooted in political, social and economic injustices. Poverty increases the chances of poor health, which then in turn can trap communities into poverty. Marginalized groups and individuals who may be vulnerable are often affected the worst, deprived of information, money or access to health services that can help them prevent and treat diseases.

Diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria account for nearly half of all child death globally, and many other diseases, including HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, have affected over a billion people worldwide, thanks in part to poor water and sanitation.

“Sanitation is a cornerstone of public health,” said World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan. “Improved sanitation contributes enormously to human health and well-being, especially for girls and women. We know that simple, achievable interventions can reduce the risk of contracting diarrhoeal disease by a third.”

Preventing the spread of diseases also helps improve education for children, allowing them to be an added asset to their community. When children take part in their community, it helps engage them as citizens and aids them toward a higher economic prospect.

Allowing people to grow by giving them what every person should have allows them to grow economically, but by also providing ways to prevent and treat preventable diseases, the economies of developing countries will grow as well — thus shrinking the number of people who live in extreme poverty around the world.

– Monica Newell

Sources: Heath Poverty Action, Global Citizen, Prospect, WHO, New York Times
Photo: UN Foundation

 

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Obesity As Top Global Health Concern

In the 1950s, there were approximately 700 million people living in hunger, while the number of obese people was around 100 million, and a majority of the cases were found in countries with strong economies. Today, however, that is no longer the case.

In 2010, the number of hungry people in the world had slowly risen to 800 million while the number of obese citizens in the world sharply rose to 1.4 billion.

According to a documentary, “Globeisty: Fat’s New Frontier,” there has been not one country with a low or moderate income that has managed to reduce its number of hungry citizens without rapidly jumping to obesity.

However, obesity is not just limited to developed nations. Currently, there are more obese people in developing countries than there are people suffering from hunger in the same countries.

It is predicted that in India, around 100 million people will have diabetes some time in the foreseeable future. Currently, in the U.S. alone, eight obesity-related diseases are the cause for over 75% of healthcare costs. The diseases include, but are not limited to: Type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (or NAFLD), Polycystic ovarian syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.

One of the leading causes of this rise in obesity is linked to the increase in the consumption of soft drinks. There has been a direct correlation between the rise in obesity rates in developing countries and the sales of soft drinks. In Mexico, the largest consumer of carbonated soft drinks in the world, 71% of women and 65% of men are overweight.

In 1989, Mexico had a miniscule portion of its adult population overweight and had no overweight children. Over the span of 15 to 16 years, the citizens of Mexico have reached a level of diabetes equal to the level the U.S. had 10 to 20 years ago.

However, another leading cause of obesity is consumption of foods filled with carbohydrates. In the 1950s, most of the food globally consumed was locally grown and fresh. Now, the majority of food consumed in developed and developing nations is highly processed and filled with carbohydrates. When a person eats a carbohydrate-heavy meal and fails to move a sufficient enough amount to turn the carbohydrates into energy, they are turned into sugar and fat.

In “The World is Fat,” an article written in 2007, Barry Popkin stated that the “exponential change in a vast array of courses” have led to people moving less and eating more, resulting in an “unprecedented” rise in obesity.

One final cause of obesity can be linked to accessibility of certain types of food, drink and cooking material.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the citizens of China were readily able to access hydrogenated solid oils like Crisco and liquid oils. Now, a Chinese citizen consumes around 300 to 400 of their daily calories from vegetable oil. There has also been an increase in the consumption of dairy products, fish, poultry, beef and pork. In 1974, the price of 100 kilograms of beef was somewhere around $500 in developing nations. Today, the price has dropped to around one-fifth of that number.

There is a movement, though, to try to halt the rise of obesity. In Mexico, special fitness programs are available to try to encourage people to move more. These programs are offered for free to allow anyone who needs it the chance to prevent obesity. The Mexican Minister of Health also has proposed taxing items and taking more aggressive stands toward working to combat obesity.

– Monica Newell

Sources: Scientific American, Epoch Times, The Independent
Photo: SF Gate

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How Many People Live in Poverty Worldwide?

What do the 700 million people who watched the world cup in 2010 have to do with global poverty? 700 million people is the number of people who survive on less than a dollar a day, which is 10 percent of the world’s population. A shocking 80 percent of the world’s population survives on less than 10 dollars a day. That is almost 6 billion people living in poverty worldwide.

There are a little over two billion children living in the world currently and half of those children live in extreme poverty every day. According to UNICEF, 22,000 of those children die each year, which is roughly the same number of college students attending at a state university in the United States.

The children living in poverty stricken areas do not have access to proper education. The number of school days missed by these children are over 433 million days of absence. Those days not attended could have been utilized to provide a better life for themselves and their families, but because of their circumstances they are ensnared in that world. Children need access to health resources, clean water and sanitation. Unfortunately, almost one billion children do not receive access to those essentials.

Another major problem that touches nearly half of the world’s population is access to water. Over one billion people in developing countries to not have access to clean water and one in three of those people live on less than one dollar a day. The average toilet flush usage is about three liters of water, which is more than the ordinary quantity of access to water in developing countries. This issue causes problems with human development in these developing nations and causes daily life to continue to be a battle. Nearly half of those populations are suffering from health problems linked to the lack of sanitation and fresh water.

In developing countries the gap between the rich and poor continues to grow each day. This limits areas in poverty, particularly rural, isolated areas to accept limitations to opportunities and resources. The progress that has been formed in developing nations is at times threatened by climate change, famine and economic changes making growth in areas of poverty more difficult. The access to clean water, wellness services and education remains difficult to obtain, causing movement between the class systems stagnant. One answer to the issues of worldwide poverty and climate change is the implementation of the proper education for small marginal farming techniques like irrigation and crop rotation. Food security in the growing nations is a number one goal to continue to reduce worldwide poverty.

– Rachel Cannon

Sources: Global Issues, World Bank
Photo: PKH

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Curbing the Spread of Vector-Borne Disease

The theme of this year’s World Health Day, held annually on April 7th, was to promote the awareness of vector-borne diseases. Vector-borne diseases are transmitted through the bites of infected mosquitoes, flies, ticks and water snails, among other disease-carrying pests.

This year the World Health Organization (WHO) promoted the slogan “small bite, big threat,” in the hopes that they would be able to increase awareness on how people across the globe can protect themselves and their families from these pests and the viruses that they may transmit.

Vector-borne diseases have radically increased in the past few decades, aided by an increase in urbanization, international travel and environmental changes.

More than one billion people each year are affected by these diseases, which include malaria, dengue fever, Lyme disease, schistosomiasis and yellow fever.

Efforts to control the spread of these diseases have included the distribution of bed nets and insecticides, the use of body repellents and protective clothing, and the push for clean water and adequate sanitation.

WHO Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, noted, “A global health agenda that gives higher priority to vector control could save many lives and avert much suffering. No one in the 21st century should die from the bite of a mosquito, a sand fly, a blackfly or a tick.”

The focus this year is on dengue fever, which is currently the most rapidly spreading vector-borne disease in the world.

Dengue fever, also known as “breakbone fever” due to its symptoms, is a severe flu-like disease marked by vomiting, bleeding, body aches and difficult breathing. There is no known vaccine or cure available.

During the past 50 years, dengue fever has spread rapidly to more than 100 countries. Prior to 1960, dengue had seen some 15,000 cases, whereas now over 380 million cases of dengue fever persist.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is currently working on a vaccine for dengue fever in partnership with a company specializing in vaccine development, Inviragen. They have gone through clinical trials in a number of countries including Singapore, Colombia, Thailand and Puerto Rico, and analysis of those findings is still underway.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is campaigning alongside the WHO to address this growing concern.

Previous programs to curb the spread of vector-borne diseases have proven successful, for example, the United States’ effort to combat malaria.

Malaria is the most deadly of vector-borne diseases, killing 1.2 million people every year. Multiple campaigns have been launched to prevent the spread of this disease, including the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) and the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. PMI has distributed more than 120 million bed nets since 2006, as well as delivered more than 135 million doses of combination drug therapy.

These success stories provide hope for current efforts to control other vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever and schistosomiasis.

– Mollie O’Brien

Sources: Mission of the United States, Voice of America

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Smoking: A Survival Method?


According to a study by The Population Health Metrics, people living in poor neighborhoods are more prone to smoke at higher rates than those living in wealthier communities. An estimated 25% of adults with less than 12 years of education smoke cigarettes.

One survey shows that most people living in poverty want to quit smoking, but unfortunately it’s not as simple as “just quitting”.

Tobacco companies have been proven to promote smoking in lower income communities by lowering the price of cigarettes and flooding the neighborhoods with cigarette advertisements. In some cities, like Philadelphia, one can buy cigarettes for about $5 without tax.

The director of policy and planning for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, Giridhar Mallya, stated that those living in poverty smoke to comfort his or her depression and stress.

For some, smoking is not just a coping method, but also a survival method. Lindell Harvey of Crum Lynne, Delaware smokes when he has run out of food.

Smoking enables the body to fend off the feeling of hunger. In Camden, New Jersey, 51-year-old Elaine Styles, a day-care worker who was laid-off, smokes so she doesn’t feel like she has to eat, “I make sure my family eats, then I have a loosie and go to bed.” A loosie is a single cigarette sold for about 50 cents.

Many wonder though, how do people living in poverty afford such an expensive habit? Buying cigarettes in low-income neighborhoods costs an estimated $1,000 a year with approximately 14% of income spent on cigarettes a year.

Nicotine triggers the part of the brain stem that causes one to feel comfort and safety. There are reasons behind the addiction that make sense once the dynamics of poverty are taken into account: the hopelessness of feeling trapped and the “limited sense of having a future,” says Elijah Anders, a Yale University sociologist.

There is hope for the future, though. Rates of smoking have dropped about seven percent between 2004 and 2012, with lower rates of teen smoking and a decline in adult smoking.

With more focus on poverty issues, the numbers are expected to steadily drop within the next few years.

– Becka Felcon

Sources: CNN, CDC, Philly
Photo: Blogspot

Zhengzhou Residents Desperate for Fresh Air

Zhengzhou, China is one of the highest polluted cities in the world. In fact, the air pollution density has earned them the position of number 10 on the Greenpeace list of cities with the most pollution in 2013. The rankings were built by using information from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Furthermore, the Air Quality Index (AQI) gave Zhengzhou 175 on the scale of “Good to Hazardous” levels of pollution. Their number falls within the “unhealthy” group, meaning that “everyone may begin to experience health effects, and members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects.”

The city has also surpassed the capital, Beijing by 102 points on the AQI, with Beijing at 55, which is considered to have “moderate” levels of pollution.

During the last week of March, China revealed a series of pictures featuring Chinese citizens inhaling fresh mountain air from sealed bags. These pictures were part of the campaign for fresh air, issued by Laojun Mountain Natural Reserve Development Company, a travel agency.

Though mainly a publicity stunt to bring people to the resort on the Loajun Mountain, in a city filled with smog and unhealthy air, it was a hit. Thousands of people lined up to take turns inhaling the fresh air from 20 bags, which traveled over 120 miles to the city. Each person was given a few minutes to breathe in the air.

It certainly made a statement about the city’s lack of breathable air, which the World Health Organization has deemed a health crisis.

One pregnant woman mentioned to a TV reporter that she “felt [her] baby move right when [she] breathed in” the fresh mountain air.

Khurram Zhang, the sales and marketing chief of the Laojun Mountain Natural Reserve, stated that in another promotion they gathered 2,000 cans of air from the mountain and distributed them to the public.

They were all given away after 20 minutes.

– Becka Felcon

Sources: CNN, PolicyMic, UPI, The Wall Street Journal
Photo: The Wall Street Journal

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Suicide a Growing Problem for Chinese Women

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Every two minutes a person in China commits suicide. Around a quarter of all suicide cases in the world take place in China. Out of China’s 1.3 billion population, 287,000 individuals commit suicide per year. Suicide is the leading cause of death for teenagers and individuals 15-34 years old.

These numerical statistics are merely numbers and do not reveal the humanity and the root causes of these problems. However, it is difficult to analyze problems without first collecting data and there is a lack of recent accurate official data on suicide rates in China.

Suicide cases in China are quite different from those in other countries. In Western countries, around 90 percent of suicides and attempts are brought on by long term mental illness or depression while only 60 percent of suicide cases in China are caused by mental health problems. Although mental health problems and depression increases the chance of attempts at taking one’s life, these figures demonstrate there are other factors in China causing the high rates of suicide.

In rural areas, there is less access to mental health care facilities and treatment. Suicide rates in the rural countryside are two to three times higher than the rates in urban cities. The most common way to attempt taking one’s own life in rural areas is by swallowing the pesticides used to protect their crops.

Suicide affects every demographic in the Chinese population but it is the number one cause of death for Chinese women. According to the World Health Organization, China is the only country in the world where its women commit suicide at higher rates than its men. Of all female suicides worldwide, 56 percent occur in China.

Why are so many Chinese women taking their own lives? If these women do not have mental health or depression, what spurs on these decisions to end their lives?

Studies cite martial conflict, escaping shame, poverty, pressure from their society and the one child policy as explanations to why so many women in China choose to take their own lives. Perhaps it’s a combination of these economic, social and personal factors that can explain China’s problem with mental health.

People commit suicide because they believe it is the only option available for them. When they are drowning from their problems, from the weight of the world and they want their pain to stop, they can choose to take their own life. From their view, taking their own life offers a way out, for their problems to go away.

But suicide is never the only option. They need someone to tell them that things will get better, that their problems can get fixed. They need someone to tell them that their lives are worthwhile. They need support from their families and loved ones. These women need to be told, whether by their government, their families or their friends, that they are not alone and that suicide is not the answer.

– Sarah Yan

Sources: The World of Chinese, WHO
Photo: Flickr

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Grace Amey-Obeng: Promoting Natural Beauty

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No one should feel shame about their skin, no matter their pigment and no matter their race. That is precisely what Grace Amey-Obeng believes.

Amey-Obeng is the founder of an extremely successful cosmetics company that aims to help women feel confidence and accepting of their natural beauty. She began her business in Ghana after going to college for beauty therapy in the UK. She loved the way women glowed when they got dressed up, and had their makeup and hair done.

Gaining success in Ghana was not an easy road for Amey-Obeng. When she returned to Africa after college, she had to figure out how to work around the demand for skin-bleaching, which is quite common in certain countries in Africa.

“[Women] associated being light-skinned with being affluent…and I thought that I can do something about that by going on an anti-bleaching campaign,” stated Amey-Obeng.

The process of skin-bleaching has been found to be harmful and risky to the body, especially to those living in area with lots of sun. Bleaching, which requires chemical usage, strips the layers of the skin causing unnatural exposure to the harmful ultra violet rays. The process can range in side effects, including acne, skin cancer, exposed capillaries and easy bruising.

In some countries, selling creams that should require a prescription are sold over the counter, where they are easily accessible to women and often times extremely popular.

When these prescriptions are not available, some women will go so far as to concoct their own cream “using perming creams and all kinds of chemicals to bleach,” says Amey-Obeng.

Amey-Obeng endorses a healthy glow, one based on exercising, eating healthy and sleeping well. She promotes her concept through an educational program that she set in motion. In order to discuss natural ways to take care of one’s skin, she gives advice through a newspaper column, which is published on a weekly basis. She also trains students about skin care at her beauty school, one of the three branches of her cosmetic foundation known as FC (Forever Clair) Group of Companies. Her company also includes a cosmetics line and a few clinics.

The FC Group of Companies goal far surpasses the campaign against skin-bleaching. It also advocates for pride in one’s natural beauty not limited to skin color, but mainly one’s ability to accomplish and succeed. Since the launch of the FC beauty colleges, more than 5,000 students, the majority being young women, have been able to graduate and become beauticians.

“On the day of graduation, I always cry because I see the joy in their faces that they have accomplished something. They’ve been through challenges,” Amey-Obeng says.

And although Amey-Obeng went through her fair share of challenges and struggles as an aspiring businesswoman, she always shares her own story in hopes that it will help another young woman find the confidence she needs to reject harmful beauty standards and embrace their own natural beauty.

You can watch a video about Grace Amey-Obeng by Ghana Culture Politics here.

– Becka Felcon

Sources: Ghana Culture Politics, The Voice, CNN, The New York Times
Photo: Sankofa Online