Tuesday, February 3, 2009
THE MONEY DOESN"T ADD UP
In class monday (2/2/2009) the class was shown a variety of global maps that showed many different things. Things like population, densities of diseases, money dedicated to disease control and many more. The two that stood out for me were the densities of disease and the amount of money that was being contributed towards each country to control these diseases. The maps just didn't match up at all. In most all cases, sub-Saharan Africa was the leader in any given disease, followed by South Asia followed by an up coming Russia. What was mind boggling switching back and forth between the two maps was that consistently, America was the least populated country for any given disease yet they had the most money being put into their health care system to control these disease. From an American ethnocentric position, this is a great thing that any American would be proud of. To any one else around the world that is not seeing any benefit from America of even larger European countries for aid with AIDS and other STI's, this is a very serious topic. Because there isn't enough health care money being put into sub-Sahara Africa or South Asia, the disease have a tendency to thrive in many spots. It is obviously seen by the number of cases from there regions. Without the resources to prevent disease, especially diseases as serious as AIDS and STI's there is but a slim glance of light. Not to mention that the South African president for some reason doesn't believe STI's are a real thing. My US prospective has given me a bittersweet taste in my mouth. Sweet to the fact the we are so fortunate to have such availability of health care, bitter in the sense that there greater causes world wide that would benefit greatly from our money. In the US because of the great health programs and disease prevention methods, along with lack of education, I feel that STI's have taken a back seat of severity which should not be the case. Education NEEDS to be increased!
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Yeah thats a good point that education must be increased if we are going to see any changes in the prevelance of STI's both in our own country and others. It is not surprising to me that as the nation with the lower rates of disease, we are spending the most money on disease prevention. I think a major factor is the wealth that our nation carries, as well as our leadership. Like you said, the African President doesnt understand the severity of STI's himself, so how can you expect him to lead a successful disease prevention story under his leadershiP?
ReplyDeleteIt is surprising that the runner up president in South Africa(I think) said that, after he slept with a random woman, he was safe from any disease because he washed himself after. He doesn't know what he's getting himself into and that's where education of needs to come in.
ReplyDeleteEducation has taught a lot of us in the US and many of us are aware about the spreading of STIs, the use of condom and safer sex. The US has come a long way and made mistakes(STIs and aids) but with the mistakes, they are trying to show others how to fix the mistakes or prevent it.
Kevin,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kevin that funds to help prevent diseases in Sub-Sahara Africa and Southeast Asia are not prevalent. There is a direct correlation between money on spent on controlling diseases and the prevalence of a disease in an area. America is the leading spender on health care and has the lowest rate of many diseases.
I think all diseases need to be seen as global issues not just focusing on eliminating them out in our country. Due to the availability of travel in modern days, carriers of the disease can immigrate to anywhere in the world and spread the disease. Money from our health care system in America and from other 1st world countries in the world needs to be diverted to poorer areas such as Africa and Asia. To succeed in eliminating diseases in our country we must eliminate them globally.