Infectious deseases

Picture by: Doctors Without Borders



Fighting Malaria is the sixth Millennium Development Goal of UN.  Malaria is an infectious disease transmitted by the mosquitoes. Malaria causes more than 1 million deaths every year mainly among children who are under five years old. Malaria affects specially people’s lives in tropical Africa, where many people don’t have the necessary income to prevent the infection. (Ruxin, J., Paluzzi, J., Wilson, P., Tosan, Y., Kruk, M. & Teklehaimanot, A. 2005.) The typical symptom of malaria is a violent fever lasting 6 - 8 hours, recurring every two or three days. Malaria is the world's worst health problem; at the moment more people are ill with malaria than with any other disease.  (WHO.) In the risk group are specially children who suffer of undernourishment or other disease. Also pregnant women, people infected by HIV/AIDS and people suffering from other illnesses are in a risk group. People who live in rural areas  without an access to health services and are very poor are the most likely to be effected by the illness. Malaria does not only cause deaths, but also influences on the economy and income of families and nations. The question is: why is there not a vaccine for malaria?  Is it because it does not influence on the lives of the people living in industrialized world, but the  people living in poor countries which do not have the influence in world's economy neither the capital to start large-scale actions? Malaria is also very bad problem in countries that suffer of ongoing armed conflicts  or corruption and that often use more money on arms than on the health care.         

Picture by: WHO.

The main actions to prevent malaria are:

• Bed nets to prevent mosquito bites in tropical areas.
• Indoor residual spraying.
• Presumptive treatment during pregnancy.
• Early diagnosis and effective interventions.
• Treatment with antimalarials.
• Management of the environment to control mosquitoes.
• Health education to population who is in risk to malaria infection.
• Policy making toward better health care in regional and national level. 

(Ruxin, J. et al. 2005.)

Almost 40 million people are infected by HIV/AIDS. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region that bears the worst consequences of the disease. Millions of people die every year, millions of children get infected by HIV/AIDS and many children remain orphans as a result of the illness.The disease also influences on the socio-economical part of people's lives and nations remain without strong work force because of the high level of HIV positive patients among the young population. HIV infections are rapidly growing also in Russia, China and India. (Ruxin, J. et al. 2005.)  

Tuberculosis is a leading killer of people with HIV/AIDS. Approximately 2 million people died of tuberculosis in 2004 and 4 million was infected. Tuberculosis influences the hardest of the poorest populations lives and up to 80% of the people infected by tuberculosis are HIV/AIDS patients. The global control of tuberculosis has failed and new actions should be taken.

One of the main reasons that the epidemics have grown so rapidly and are mainly affecting the people  in  developing countries is the reason that almost two billion people have inadequate access to life-saving medicine. (Ruxin, J. et al. 2005.)

The most effective ways to prevent HIV/AIDS are to use the condoms and campaigns to change the behaviors of people. Investing in health systems would also be required, qualified health staff and access to quality health care are essential as also access to affordable medical care. As we discussed earlier in section about the Poverty and Health  in Ruanda and Haiti there have been some successes with the community based support system to HIV/AIDS patients, where the health personnel goes to people's homes in rural areas and  support person in chosen among the community. 

Also changing peoples cultural related behavior is very important. In some countries. In Malawi, for instance, some women get infected by the reproductive rituals after they have lost their husband. Furthermore, mother's infected by HIV do not  always take the necessary actions to prevent their children from the infection, because they would be stigmatized by the community. Furthermore, by preventing HIV/AIDS infections also the number of people infected by tuberculosis. There is a crucial interconnection between these two illnesses.

To conclude the necessary actions are:    

• HIV testing and counselling.
• Antiretroviral therapy.  
• Invest on human resources (such as pharmacist and qualified health care).
• Create safety nets for people with HIV/AIDS.
• Improve the basic health care system and train community health workers.
• Improve access to education and promotion of gender equality.
• Fighting poverty and corruption.
• Better health policies and global cooperation to fight HIV/AIDS.
• Long term planning in global, in national and in local level.   

(Ruxin, J. et al. 2005.)   

 

Sources:

• Ruxin, J., Paluzzi, J., Wilson, P., Tosan, Y., Kruk, M. & Teklehaimanot, A. 2005. URL: Emerging consensus in HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and access to essential medicines 
• WHO. URL:  http://www.emro.who.int/rbm/AboutMalaria-QuickOverview.htm
• WHO Fact sheets: Malaria, 10 Facts on Malaria.
• WHO Fact sheets: Tuberculosis, 10 Facts about Tuberculosis.
• WHO Health Topics: HIV/AIDS.

Pictures:

• Doctors Without Borders 2010. URL:  www.doctorswithoutborders.org
• WHO 2010. URL: http://www.emro.who.int/rbm/AboutMalaria-QuickOverview.htm