Population growth: an asset?

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Ms. Miss Danielle Mbamba, a thirth year medical student at Université des Montagnes in Cameroon. She is affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

Since the last century, the world’s population has experienced a real demographic boom that has had multiple impacts on several levels, including health.

Indeed, this phenomenon has significantly undermined the principle of health for all in the sense that the various health systems established long before have had more than difficulty and still have to meet the health needs of an increasingly growing population.

It should be noted that with this increase, there is a large majority of young people under 25 years of age, including children, who are a rather fragile target for childhood diseases and more others especially in underdeveloped countries, which could lead to the belief that the growing population and underdevelopment do not mix well, which is not totally false. 

An increase in the world’s population has led to an exacerbation of precariousness, insufficient infrastructure, conflicts, wars and climate changes and therefore the availability of even the most basic health care.

Moreover, in recent decades, currents of thought have advocated that underdeveloped countries should curb the birth rate, which is largely high compared to that of developed countries, in order to compensate for these shortcomings. In developed countries, particularly in Europe, a contrary policy has been set up to replace the majority of the ageing population, but this has not prevented the Covid-19 pandemic from wreaking havoc compared to countries deemed “disadvantaged”, namely underdeveloped countries.

To rebound, it should be noted that despite the fact that population growth has created a real lack in terms of health care availability infrastructure that can be solved by this same population. That is why it is important for the various governments to address this problem, which is more than threatening to the future of the world. 

This can include socio-economic and demographic investments such as health campaigns, vaccinations, awareness-raising on hygiene, the multiplication of health infrastructures down to the smallest social spheres, the training of this mostly young population in medical care and primary health care, which are a crucial element in maintaining a good health system,  the improvement of the environment, which would already avoid many health problems, but also political cooperation and mutual assistance between the various States, with non-governmental, international organizations such as the WHO ( World Health Organization).

It must be understood that the solution to overcome this imbalance is not primarily the slowing down of births as it seems but the structuring, the supervision of this population which represents more a major asset than a threat to its own survival. It is up to health systems to adapt and improve and not to the population to deny itself, health for all is still possible and population growth is the clearly one of the best asset.

About the author

Miss Danielle Mbamba is a thirth year medical student at Université des Montagnes in Cameroon, she is a member of CAMSA and her primary goal is to save lives and participate in her own way in eradicating the inequalities in education and health rights that plague the world. She spends much of her free time at reading but also to writing which is for her a landmark in this world far too digitized.

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