The continent of Africa is often associated with disease and a lack of health care. Robert Collins focuses on this issue by selecting authors that discus both the historical, geographical, and economic explanation for the prevalence of disease in Africa as well as discussing external factors, such as colonialism, which have severely impacted health care on the continent. Africa has always struggled with certain diseases, such as malaria and sleeping sickness, but when much of the continent was colonized, new disease, such as small pox and more sexually transmitted diseases were introduced to the African people. Colonization did bring with it a few advances in the medical field like new treatments for old diseases as well as modern medical …show more content…
The continent as a whole still faces many problems relating to health care and epidemics that it did during colonization, even though certain practices and health care systems vary regionally and according to government structure. Collin’s presents the first article, which focuses on medical expertise on the African continent. Its author, Una Maclean, states that the reason Africa is currently facing issues with disease and epidemics is due to the misuse of medical knowledge and poor distribution of resources (Collins 83). An example that shows the misdistribution of resource can be seen when delving into many African countries health budget. Numerous African countries have a low life expectancy in comparison to the rest of the world, which is mostly due to the high levels of infant mortality. Many African children die at a young age because of issues like malnutrition, …show more content…
They first define the three major types of health policies, then they mention factors that influence which health policy is used by a country, and finally health care policies in different African states are discussed. The colonial health model prioritizes social control, having funds to cover administration costs, and generating a surplus of wealth to support trade and production (87). This type of policy focused first on Europeans and then slowly spread to urban elite, neglecting much of the rural African population. A basic health services model works to expand health care in rural and urban areas with an emphasis on preventative medicine (88). The last type of health policy is primary health care and its purpose is to reflect the needs of the community, which often entail promotive, preventative, and rehabilitative care. The two main determinants of health policies are the contemporary African states, which makes decisions based on ideology, and practice constraints such as poverty, declining trade, and a shortage of medical workers (90). There does appear to be a correlation between the type of government a country has and their health policy. For example, capitalist states, such as Kenya and the Ivory Coast, place an emphasis on teaching hospitals and want health care equivalent to international standards (91). These states often have
Before discussing how disease has shaped history and altered cultures, it is important to understand how they themselves have developed and changed throughout history. Disease, in the broadest definition of the word, has been present since the beginning of humanity. Even ...
While the moral backing for public health in its current state may be sound, what many researchers fail to understand is that the many moral failings of its predecessors that color the legacy of public health internationally and at home. As discussed in the chapter “Colonial Medicine and its Legacies” within the textbook Reimagining Global Health arranged by Paul Farmer, before the conception of global health there was international health which sought to distribute health as a good horizontally across international, political lines. Under the framework of international health, public health workers became agents of a cold war enmeshed in the fiscal, geopolitical, and territorial struggles between two hegemons rather than the holistic value of community health. While international health as a framework has largely been abandoned, much of its rhetoric can be found within our current framework of public health such as the enumeration of certain parts of the world as "1st world", "2nd world",
There are major diseases that affect men and women all over the world today. The country, that I will be talking about is affected daily by many different deadly diseases such as, lower respiratory infections, HIV/AIDS, measles, whooping cough, malaria, pneumonia and many more. The residents of Africa are suffering from preventable, treatable, and fatal diseases everyday at a higher rate compared to other developed countries. The World Organization (WHO) projects that over the next ten years the continent will experience the largest increase in death rates from cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease, and diabetes.
In the modern day, Africa is seen by the world around it as a relatively underprivileged continent. Since its independence from colonial rule, Africa 's economic performance has been less than stellar and its advancement has been slow, which could be argued through a myriad of different ideologies. Nathan Nunn, the author of “Historical Legacies: A model linking Africa’s past to its current underdevelopment” believes that the slave trade and colonial rule, brought on by the Europeans in the past, is the reason for Africa’s economic hardships, that are still lingering to this day. What he sets out to answer in this academic paper is an interesting question, “Why do these events, which ended years ago, continue to matter today?” Through the
Europeans were deemed poor candidates for slavery due to their higher mortality rates. In 17th century, the New World was going through Public Health crisis. European immigration to the New World influenced the transmission of unknown epidemic diseases in American colonies. Warm climate in American colonies also became det...
- - -. “The Third and Final Continent.” Interpreter of Maladies. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. 173-198. Print.
A weak argument can be brought forth as to the good that colonial expansion brought to Africa; education was improved, trade was increased, the infant mortality rate decreased, the infrastructure was improved, and religion and western influence were introduced, these last two are very arguable as to the benefit, but these improvements no matter how large or small will always be overshadowed by the suffering, torture, death, and destruction caused by this colonization.
Global health fails to integrate the local viewpoint of the people into their development action plan, and to make development initiative successful, the opinion of the community must be taken into account. Therefore, the local people tend to dispute the western rule that urges development strategies over their community without comprehending the wants of the people. Another major reason for the failure of global health initiative is the absence of health infrastructure in much of the growing world. Due to this fact, the global health encounters a usual obstacle of transferring extensive amounts of resources to people, usually in local and distant geographical locations, with no substantial infrastructure to work through. The community nurses, midwives, or traditional doctors are given inadequate teaching or practice opportunities to allow them to work effectively with local people for a long term success. The global health initiative often tends to spend a little time as required to assure that there is a common vision, not just temporary obligation but a chance to grow and support the skills the community need to perfectly put them in place to
All four countries are undergoing an epidemiologic transition as treatment and control of infectious diseases continues to improve. However, the major issues that affect each country and how the country has responded to their problems are vastly different. It is funny, but in the midst of writing this reflection, I somehow found myself in a conversation with someone who was horrified by the quality of healthcare in “third world” countries. This assumption that poor countries have horrendous quality of healthcare is not uncommon. Fortunately, these assumptions are wrong. Though developing countries are facing the unique problem of operating a healthcare system in an environment with inadequate resources and public health infrastructures, they have managed to develop incredible solutions. In Latin America and the Caribbean, a combination international and national interventions has been so successful that these countries have the highest percentage of ART coverage in any low-to-middle-income countries (Garcia et al., 2014). Cuba’s WHO health ranking is 39, approximately the same as the U.S. and achieved at a fraction of the price. As countries shift into the third epidemiologic transition, many of the basic systems for obtaining medications and seeing health care professionals are already in place. These four have taken the first important step and declared that healthcare is a right for all, something that even the U.S. has failed to do. Though they must continue building upon their current infrastructure, they have the advantage of hindsight and seeing what has worked in other countries. As we have seen during our study of the U.S. and other OECD countries, there is no one perfect health system. However, I am confident that the health systems that emerge from these developing countries will be one that works for the
The imposition of colonialism on Africa drastically reconstructed the continent. All over, European powers attempted to “assimilate” countries into their own, all the while exploiting and victimizing their people, culture, and resources. However, if there was one aspect of colonialism that provided a fertile ground for conflict, it was the unknowingly insidious method of introducing religion, specifically Christianity, into African families. This is particularly exemplified in the novels Things Fall Apart, Houseboy, and Weep Not, Child. Throughout these novels, the assimilation of Christianity within the protagonists’ not only results in a destruction of their sacred and traditional values, but also their well-being and those around them.
In many parts of the world that are considered lower or middle-class countries, health disparities are cause of major concern that leads to unnecessary disease and possible death. Many variables affect how and why many citizens of lower and middle-class countries struggle to obtain adequate healthcare. One region of the world classified as a lower socio economic territory is Ethiopia. Many factors contribute to the lack of health care in Ethiopia such as access to care, high cost of care, and being uneducated, to name a few. One idea that hinders many citizens in Ethiopia to attain healthcare is the access to the healthcare system. This research project will entail the issue of access to the health care system; ways it is affecting the lives of those living in Ethiopia, and measures that can be taken to possibly increase the availability and attainment of healthcare.
The high mortality rate in South Africa has resulted from the poor national healthcare services. Annual reports from WHO shows that millions of African fatalities caused
powerful regimes were formed in Europe and China, since there was flat land bounded by rivers
There is no doubt that European colonialism has left a grave impact on Africa. Many of Africa’s current and recent issues can trace their roots back to the poor decisions made during the European colonial era. Some good has resulted however, like modern medicine, education, and infrastructure. Africa’s history and culture have also been transformed. It will take many years for the scars left by colonization to fade, but some things may never truly disappear. The fate of the continent may be unclear, but its past provides us with information on why the present is the way it is.
According to the current status of medical geography, the two major traditions focus on 1) the studies of health services delivery and 2) the studies of disease patterns, including disease ecology. This symbolizes how the relations between people and the environment are closely linked with cultural ecology. Yet, as previously mentioned, both cultural and political ecology define the political ecology of disease. All of these factors interconnect because of the microscopic aspects within an individual’s life. The same factors that affect the health of an individual, affect the probability of them being at risk of being at risk of diseases. In my perspective, the relationships between the political, economic and social characteristics and relations, the environment, need to be confined to capitalism and colonialism. To be more specific, throughout history, both capitalism and colonialism have influenced an immense affect on the societies who are suffering from health disparities and dying from diseases. A great example of how environment, economy, politics and human behavior, but yet capitalism and colonialism have primarily contributed to the development and increase of diseases is through Dr. Mayer’s example of malaria in Trinidad. When the country was in stage of development and transition from agriculture to