During my numerous trips to Nigeria to visit my extended family, I saw firsthand how international health disparities can affect communities. It is often challenging to make the highest standard of care available to all groups and individuals here, and I became increasingly motivated to devote myself to the mission of reducing health disparities in African countries. People in my family, regardless of societal class, suffered from various illnesses including HIV/AIDS, malaria, and polio because of poor access to quality healthcare services. My goal is to return to underserved communities in both the United States and Nigeria after being armed with the training from the University of Michigan School of Information and the School of Public Health …show more content…
My parents told me about the time where I barely came back alive from my first trip to Nigeria as an infant. On this trip, I was having health complications and I spent almost a week unable to retain the baby food that I was being fed at the time. My parents tried to take me to our village’s local pharmacy, but the employees there could not provide any answers on my condition.
My parents were unable to bring me to a hospital because the nearest one to our village was too far away. As time went on, my condition continued to worsen to a critical state. However, on one of the last days of the trip, I finally stopped rejecting food after my parents coincidentally switched the baby food flavor that they were feeding me. It was later confirmed when we returned to the United States that I was allergic to one of the flavors in the baby food.
After hearing about this experience from my infancy, I immediately asked myself why this simple diagnosis could not have been assessed in Nigeria. If my family could have accessed a hospital in Nigeria to consult a professional, this ordeal may not have lasted for as long as it did. I proceeded to ask additional questions, such as how many avoidable casualties occur in Nigeria due to the lack of access to quality healthcare. My personal experience changed the way that I view analysis on health. Behind all of the statistics or
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In order to become more active in international health matters, I strive to be involved in an analytics research group that uses data to improve public health in disadvantaged communities. My particular interests lie within community health informatics to understand the connection between where people live and the effects on their health. Similar to how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses population-level data from disease surveillance systems to predict trends and draw conclusions, I plan to use my knowledge and experiences to leverage large-scale data from population-level epidemiology to contribute to international healthcare infrastructures. For instance, with the ownership of cell phones becoming increasingly common in Nigeria, we can use these smartphones to empower Nigerians with knowledge of disease symptoms, treatments, and activity. Having this knowledge at hand can assist with reducing misconceptions and stigmas of modern healthcare, staying up to date with disease trends or outbreaks, and hopefully preventing people from going to the hospital. After acquiring a Master of Health Informatics from the University of Michigan, I would draw on perspectives from my Nigerian upbringing to develop, analyze, and employ innovative technologies to inform on disease outbreaks, planning, and treatment options to make positive impacts on human
Last but not least, like all great nations, they come and they fall, and Mali did fall just like all the other nations. According to Document F: Mansa Musa, in 2014, by UC Davis History-Social Science Project Lesson Plan on Sites of Encounter in the Medieval World-Mali, it states, “After Mansa Musa, the empire of Mali began to decline. In 1464, a new empire, Songhai, took over ruling the rich goldfields and cities of West Africa.” Ghana fell to Mali, and Mali fell to the Songhai empire. This is an effect of being a site of cultural exchange.
Between the 9th and 11th centuries, the kingdom of Ghana, established by the Soninke people in the 4th century, prospered in Northwest Africa. The kingdom became very rich because its location was in the middle of the trading routes of northwest Africa and it had many resources. Ghana traded salt for gold with its Northern neighbor. Also Ghana taxed every trader who went through Ghana to fund their army. The kings of Ghana ruled from their capital of Kumbi Saleh. The country had a rich cultural tradition that was reflected in religion. The kingdom of Ghana fell because of droughts, attacks, and lack of gold.
was 33 years old she became very ill, she became very ill because she she fasted very regularly eating nothing for 1 week. Her confessor told her to eat, but she refused because it was difficult
Access to health care in Ethiopia has left many people without proper health care and eventual death. Millions of people living in Ethiopia die because of the lack of access to the health care system; improving the access to the healthcare system in Ethiopia can prevent many of the deaths that occur, but doing so will pose a grueling and challenging task. According to Chaya (2012), poor health coverage is of particular concern in rural Ethiopia, where access to any type of modern health institution is limited at best (p. 1). If citizen of Ethiopia had more accessibility of the healthcare system more individuals could be taught how to practice safe health practices. In Ethiopia where HIV, and maternal and infant mortality rates are sky high, more education on the importance of using the healthcare system and makin...
“Ghana, a land full of gold. Africa, a land full of resources.” Where is Ghana and what is it known for? In my paper, we will learn the location, population, how they citizens received their known name, and many more interesting facts.
I first considered a public health career when I interned at the Ghana Health Service Family Health Department as an undergraduate student. Participating in national meetings focused on strategies to reduce maternal mortality in Ghana, I recognized that, in order to create sustainable advances, it is crucial to address the underlying social inequalities that exacerbate adverse health outcomes. To advance this goal, I am seeking admission into the Global Health and Population Doctoral Program at the Harvard School of Public Health.
May 9, 2001 African Networks for Health Research and Development; retrieved Dec. 9, 2003 http://www.afronets.org/archive/200105/msg00035.php.
The question to be answered in this paper is to what extent has the resource curse affected the Nigerian economy and government? Resource curse is a term that states the observation that countries that have a plethora of natural resources (e.g. oil, coal, diamonds etc.) usually have unstable political and economic structures (Sachs, 827). Nigeria is categorized as a nation that has succumb to the resource curse as it has an abundance of, and an overdependence on, oil, and a decreasing gross domestic product (GDP) (Samuels, 321-322). Nigeria is known for its specialization and overdependence on oil and according to Ross, nations of such nature tend to have high levels of poverty, large class gaps, weak educational systems, more corruption within the government, and are less likely to become democracies (Ross, 356). The political instability and regime change in Nigeria will be observed in this paper. The resource curse has greatly weakened Nigeria as it has led to the numerous regime changes, the hindering of the nation’s democratization, corruption in the government, as well as, civil conflict.
I am a very fortunate kid. I live in a house, I eat three meals a day, and I get to travel the world. I’m fourteen years and I believe you should never take things for granted.
What is culture? Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving
I participated in data collection and community health based surveys in the rural parts of Nairobi, travelling from house to house talking to people about health education, hygiene and sanitation, importance of vaccinations and benefits of seeking early treatment. I also reached out by volunteering at various medical camps in rural underserved areas, attended seminars and met with public health leaders at various events. My interpersonal skills allowed me to become an effective communicator and taught me how to foster lasting physician patient relationships. These experiences have allowed me to work with patients from diverse backgrounds and helped me appreciate the severity and complexity of healthcare issues, confirming my growing interest in preventive medicine and primary care, hence laying the groundwork for my career in public health. I wish to utilize evidence gained through research and quantitative skills attained from epidemiology and biostatistics to develop and implement effective public health policies that benefit the underprivileged and deserving
Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa with over 160million people, Male population is greater, with 85,898,305 men, representing 50.87% of the total, compared to 82,935,471 or 49.12% women(1). The life expectancy is 53/55 for male/female respectively, whereby the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011 was 5.3%, while in the same year the total expenditure on health per capita was 139$(2). With this large growing population, and the increasing life expectancy, the GDP is expected to continually rise as well. The recurrent expenditure on health as at 2008 was 98 million Nigeria Naira (3).
Ghana is a country located on the west coast of Africa; Africa is a resource rich continent that supplies much of the world with diamonds, oils, petroleum and more through trade. The country of Ghana has undergone revision in their labor forces in the past twenty years, Ghana has moved more from the traditional labor sector like agriculture to more modern sectors. One of the more modern sectors of Ghana today is the industrial sector which is relatively small and is mainly operated by the Ghanaian government. The industrial sector was expanded by the government and president to employ the unemployed and promote investment in the private sector. After the 1990’s Ghana has seen consistent economic growth but their economic growth from the last eight years has increased tremendously. In the most recent of years ( after 2004) the growth rate of Ghana started to accelerate and it increased to over six percent between a five year span from 2005-2010, with the average being above seven percent in 2000 and 2009. The increase in sectors has taken Ghana from a poverty rate of more than half 51.7% to 28.5% by the year 2005. Before Ghana’s independence on March 6, 1957 most of the country’s gdp was contributed to agriculture and the industry sector was less of a contributor. Recently, between the years of 2001-2010 the roles of whom or what contributes to the gdp has switched. Most of the contribution to the gdp is that of the service sector. Even though, the service sector has risen to the top of the economy, agriculture is slowly but surely is rising back to the top of Ghana’s highest gdp contributor by the way of nontraditional exports like automobiles and cocoa. The service sector of Ghana provides many residents w...
“With 3.7% of the population infected HIV/AIDS and thousands dying annually it is apparent that Nigeria’s concerns with HIV prevalence are disproportionately greater than that of the rest of the world.” Nigeria’s extreme cultural, socioeconomic, and religious diversity gives it a unique position as a microcosmic country dealing with the spread of HIV/AIDS. Because of its great diversity and similarity among other African nations, any success Nigeria has regarding HIV policy is likely to be duplicated by other nations in Africa and around the world. Over the past decade Nigeria’s policies concerning HIV/AIDS have been polarized. From 2005-2009 Nigeria’s HIV policy placed great emphasis on condom promotion as a method for halting the spread of HIV and preventing unwanted pregnancies. “In 2007 alone, nearly 180 million condoms were distributed through workplace programs, community mobilization, awareness events, health clinics, and through the private sector social marketing programs”. Since this time Nigeria has adopted a new policy for the years 2010-2015. This policy is a multi- pronged attack against the spread of HIV. Its main methods for halting this epidemic include: education and promotion of condom usage, and addressing biological related transmission (“dirty transfusions/needles” and mother to child transmissions). In this essay I will both address and criticize these policies.
Medical and non-medical practitioners must always be aware of the importance of medical checkups in preserving one’s health. When a patient enters a consultation room, the medical practitioner is faced with a series of challenges. First, the patient always expects a successful and accurate diagnosis of his problem, while the practitioner has the task of identifying the cause of discomfort. The practitioner must identify the cause of disease or possible set of diseases. For the practitioner to be able to identify the cause of disease, a series of investigations have to be done. It is these series of investigations which are done in a medical checkup. The medical check-up constitutes the significant part of the entire medical attendance of the doctor to the patient since it correctly establishes the doctor’s basis for appropriate action. A medical checkup is a series of medical investigations and tests conducted on a sick or non-sick individual with the aim to discover the possible malfunction of the body. The aim of this article is to illustrate the importance of regular medical checkup for Rwanda Defence Force troops with view to draw recommendations for ensuring continuous compliance.