Inequality in the delivery of health services

WFP/Reem Nada

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Mr. Mohammed Ahmed Mohammed Mater, a medical student from NAMS, Yemen. He is affiliated to the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

In the economic and social conditions under which individuals live and which determine their health. Rather than individual risk factors that may either increase or decrease the risk of an illness, such as HIV, tuberculosis, dengue fever, cholera and malnutrition.

Nobel laureate economist Amartyasen argues that the close link between health and economic and social development, which means in another words that health can be used as an indicator of the success of the society.

There are wide differences in overall health conditions between developed and developing countries. Most of these differences are related to the lack of essential life requirements such as (food, water, sanitation and primary health care), which are common problems in developing countries that are highly associated with certain disease spread within low economic communities such as dengue fever.

The prevalence of dengue fever has risen sharply around the world in recent decades. The actual numbers of dengue cases are higher than reported, and many cases are misdiagnosed. One recent estimate suggests that the number of cases of dengue fever is 390 million cases per year, of which 96 million (67-136 million) are clinically diagnosed (with some degree of disease severity). According to estimates of another study on the prevalence of dengue fever, the number of people at risk of dengue infection reaches 3.9 million in 128 countries ⁽¹⁾.

So in order to provide a proper health quality, the countries should focus on providing a strong health services to each individual, aiming to decrease the prevalence of the neglecting diseases by creating well-established health systems. Health services are the whole spectrum of care from promotion and prevention to diagnostic, rehabilitation and palliative care, as well all levels of care including self-care, home care, community care, primary care, long-term care, hospital care, in order to provide integrated health services throughout the life course ⁽²⁾.

Now if we ask ourselves why providing a proper health services is essential? According to me with proper health services human being can live a healthy and happy life making our communities better, on the other hand a really catastrophic scenarios can be prevented, like Infant mortality and maternal mortality are much more prevalent among the poor. For example, 98% of 11,600 maternal and neonatal deaths occur in developing countries ⁽³⁾.

Poverty diseases together kill about 14 million people every year. In developed countries, the provided health services are in appropriate quality. Malaria has long disappeared from Europe and America, parasitic diseases are no longer alive, and when women becomes pregnant the proportion of infants dying after delivery in their first year of life is less than one in 1,000.

Developing countries are affected by the diseases of poverty that are created among individuals with low income rather than individuals with high income. In many cases, poverty is the main risk factor. Therefore, AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and maternal and neonatal deaths occur in developing countries.

For many environmental and social reasons, including overcrowded living conditions, unsatisfactory sanitation and inadequate work such as sex workers, poor people are more vulnerable to infectious diseases, malnutrition and stress. An inadequate health system can inhibit healing and exacerbate the disease. I asked myself how I found myself as a busy medical student with issues and problems of the society mainly because of my desire to help poor individuals and society.

All health-care organizations must provide cadres for the training of medical students and the creation of volunteer teams to spread the education of individuals in the areas of pandemic diseases and their methods of prevention.

The governments with collaboration with the global and local organizations should establish health centers to provide primary health services and establish special centers for people suffering from diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis.

References

• World Health Organization. (2018).dengue and severe dengue. [online] Available at: https://www.who.int/ar/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dengue-and-severe-dengue [Accessed in 25 Dec. 2018].
• World Health Organization. (2018).health services. [online] Available at: https://www.who.int/topics/health_services/en/ [Accessed in 27 Dec. 2018].
• World Health Organization. (2018).maternal child adolescent. [online] Available at: https://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/en/ [Accessed in 25 Dec. 2018].

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