The Effect Of The Increasing World Population In HealthCare Providing

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Ms. Okuna Sophia Eruoghene, a 500 level student of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Ugbowo, Edo State Nigeria. 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.

Over 5 decades ago, overpopulation was a warning.

About 3 decades ago, severe overpopulation was a looming threat.

As of today, overpopulation is a present condition and the numbers are constantly elevating with little or no signs of regression anytime soon. This effect has led to increased epidemic outbreaks and faster pandemic spread as close contact between people, standards of living and shared sources of life supporting resources such as food and water are major contributors to this effect. Although there are various theories on overpopulation globally by experts, some believe that population would grow to a non sustainable level and lead to a population overshoot, while others believe that the population would grow to a particular number (perceived at 10.1 billion) and then decline due to technological innovations, low fertility rate amongst humans and increased knowledge and options of family planning. Either way, we would be in denial to hope for the best while being in a currently negative situation considering how health has a direct impact on population globally.

The very popular Covid-19 pandemic was an example of overpopulation effects such as the urbanization and encroachment into animal habitats. Data collected from the World Health Organisation as at May 2023 shows that;

• On the 22^nd of May 2023, a cholera surge was announced in Somalia amid rapid displacement of more than 1.4 million people.
• From April 2012 till May 2023, a total of 2604 laboratory confirmed cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) were reported globally, with 936 associated deaths at a case-fatality ratio (CFR) of 36% in which most cases were reported from Saudi Arabia, with 2196 cases and 855 related deaths.
• Since the beginning of 2023, 557 confirmed cases of diphtheria have been detected in Nigeria, affecting 21 of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory with 73 deaths at a CFR of 13%.
• Since the beginning of 2023, dengue outbreaks of significant magnitude have been recorded in the WHO Region of the Americas with 1,348,694 laboratory confirmed cases of which 0.13% are severe dengue mostly in Brazil, Peru and Bolivia with 1,302 deaths at a CFR of 0.013%.

All these amongst others too numerous to mention are outbreaks due to close contact between people caused by overpopulation especially the respiratory cases.

From 2019 to 2022, the number of undernourished people grew to as many as 150 million, 14 million of this statistics happen to be children who got plagued with illnesses such as kwashiorkor, marasmus, anaemia, mumps and vitamin deficiency amongst others.

From this brief summary, a decline in global health with increasing population has been established but what exactly does it have to do with provision of healthcare? 

The standard doctor to patient ratio is 1:600, countries with previous history of this ratio and higher are experiencing an increase, causing a strain in both the quality of health being rendered to the general public and workload on the physicians rendering such service. Talk more of countries with previous history of higher doctor to patient ratio of > 4:10,000 and are still experiencing the effects of overpopulation. The quality of healthcare in such countries would be sub par and effective healthcare would not be affordable by majority of its population with members of the vulnerable groups being most at risk.

Resilience in healthcare is not as multifaceted as it should be as the ability to adapt to the increased rate of population, handling crisis response while still being able to provide quality routine care is being increasingly strained each day as demand for healthcare is of outstripping capacity.

Although technological advancements and infrastructures are being made in the healthcare sector its resources are still inadequate globally especially in the least developed countries and are hardly accessible by the susceptible population.

Are there steps we can take to mitigate these negative effects of overpopulation?

There are many ways we can reduce the effects of overpopulation in the provision of healthcare some of which includes;

• Training physician knowledge of population health. Public health and population health are different. Public health is concerned about a broad community or society. Population health seeks to serve the populations in specific geographic locations. 
• Population planning which involves improved access to contraception and proper sex education to reduce the number of children they have by integrating family planning and safe motherhood programs into primary health care systems.
• Generous funding of family planning services by the government should be done so as to provide free services for members of the vulnerable population and subsidized fees for others.
• Baby bonuses, government funding for fertility treatments, and other incentives that increase fertility rates should be stopped.
• More medical infrastructure and resources should be provided especially in overpopulated and developing regions in different countries via funding or donations.

All of these are very crucial to improving healthcare provision but if global population keeps increasing and at the alarming rate at which its trajectory is growing, these would be supportive methods and humanity may be forced to adhere to extremely strict policies as combative methods especially as socioeconomic status would come in to play severely in the absence of adequate resources.

About the author

Okuna Sophia Eruoghene is a 500 level student of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Ugbowo, Edo State Nigeria. She is a businesswoman who deals mostly with foreign exchange and cryptocurrencies, a student politician, Sustainable Development Goals Advocate, a Millennium Fellow and a youth leader.

She currently is a member of the Small Working Group; Environmental Sustainability of the International Federation of Medical Students Association (IFMSA), the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of the Standing Committee on Health Education in the Federation of African Medical Students (FAMSA SCOHE), the Alumni Director of the Office of the Vice President Internal of the Nigerian Medical Students Association (NiMSA) and the Edo State Coordinator of African Public Health Student Network (AfricaPHSN).

She is also an active member and volunteer of many voluntary and developmental organizations and agencies some of which are JCI, GELA, YALI, Okares Foundation and others in which she holds key positions in most. She has Volunteered and participated in many outreaches and programs nationwide and internationally. 

She is dedicated to social impact, personal development and teamwork, certified by Google, Microsoft and Gapminder Global Facts on the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, a Multiple time Congresswoman in the University of Benin Medical Students Association (UBEMSA) and a multiple Award Winning Student Politician.

Her hobbies include listening to music travelling, sightseeing, tennis, basketball, fashion in all its many categories, volunteering and photography to name a few.

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