Raft
Role:Health activist
Audience:Intellectuals
Format:Website
Topic:Healthcare in Africa
The Healthcare Problem
By Evan Statile
Why do we go to the doctors? We go when we feel bad, or just to make sure we are ok, a luxury that not everyone has. In the African country of Mail the life expectance is 56 for males and 58 of females. This is because people do not have the care they need. The lives of people, just like you and me, are being wasted because of poor care, conditions and education. All things that can change with a little work.
Deaths in Africa could, and still can be prevented if there was better care for the people. Also there is a lack of doctors, according to “The Lancet”, one out of five doctors will move to a richer country with in five years of graduating medical school. A lack of doctors equals a lack of care. With a lack of care come more deaths, deaths that could have been prevented. More and more people will continue to die if we do not fix this problem.
Nine out of the ten worst healthcare systems are in Africa. Ethiopia, an East African country, has the worst healthcare system with only 2.5 doctors to every 100,000 people. Also, like most African countries, most of its residents live in rural areas. In these areas there are worse living conditions than the few modernized cities. With frequent breakouts of Yellow Fever and Meningitis, care is needed all over.
Why so many people die is largely due to lack of accessible care. If people can not get to a doctor or, just do not know where one is then they can not get the adequate care they need. According to Juntao He of www.sinoafrica.com, 87 percent of the people in Malawi live in more rural areas, while 96.6 percent of the doctors work and live in the more urban cities. Many people do not have the money to pay for medical care. Sanjay Basu, MD, PhD and co-author of “Healthcare for Poor in South Africa Lags Behind” says “Those who already have the best healthcare resources are in the best position to get more.” This means that governments are not making healthcare more affordable and people still can not get care because of money.
People get sick easily because of living conditions and under education. Living conditions are horrible. With little clean water people can get sick from animal waste, microscopic protests and bad bacteria. Disease can be spread quickly, mostly due to poor things will travel in your water and how being in contact with a sick person will make you sick, there is nothing they can do to prevent the disease. This is why outbreaks happen and will continue to happen.
Modernization has not hit Africa hard yet. This means not many big cities, not much economic growth and defiantly not much advance in healthcare. Most of the tine governments will keep putting money into the big cites, to help them grow and be successful. What this leave out is the many small under developed cities that inhabit most of the county. This is where the problem really lays and it will continue to get worse if the big government keep ignoring theses smaller cities. According to the World Health Organization, in the last 12 years there have been 120 reported outbreaks of cholera around the word. 103 of these outbreaks were in African Countries, which is over 80 percent.
Most of the money put into government goes to wars, debt and corrupt government officials. These effects everyone in many ways, one of the big ways it affects people is in healthcare. With no time, money, or even real effort being put into healthcare better it will never move forward. People are trying to move healthcare forward, but with no support from the governments of these countries the effort is futile.
This is a problem because it is other people, other humans, who are going through this. Because remote areas are not getting the health coverage they need and because people are still dying. Disease will continue to spread and cut short the lives of people who desperately need the care they can not get. Some very god solutions to this problem have come up. One of the big ideas is to open clinics in rural areas so people do not have to walk miles to get care. Also, vaccinations for children and adults so they can be protected before the disease even strikes. Education is also a key to solving this problem. With more grants to medical schools and with school open and available there is a greater chance for people to learn. If people can get educated and motivated then they can make a big difference.
The life of people like you and me are not being saved and kept safe because of conditions, education, money, and care. If we keep educating and training people then we have taken the first step. If we can make the health care more affordable and accusable then more people will come and be able to get care. Also, if we bring it to the attention of big governments and get them to care then healthcare will no longer be ignored and pushed aside. If all of this is accomplished then the situation in Africa can only get better. This is a problem that can be and needs to be overcome!
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