Today's post is a reasonably long piece, as I will be exploring certain aspects of varying world health. This post will be aided by the website Worldmapper which is an excellent resource for comparing health situations globally and how they differ in different regions. The website also provides graphics to visually show statistics, providing a clearer perspective. All graphics used are copyrighted to them. The maps you see will show countries to be distorted in comparison to their normal shape and size; this is to show variation. For example, a low life expectancy in Africa will show the country appealing smaller than normal and a comparatively large life expectancy in the UK will show the country to be swollen.
Life Expectancy
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Life Expectancy
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Life expectancy follows the general trend that MEDCs have a higher value and LEDCs considerably lower however there can be exceptions to this. The country with the highest life expectancy is Japan, which is arguably an NIC as it is developed in some respects such as its healthcare, accounting for this rank but is underdeveloped, or developing, in terms of its economy. A major factor to Japan having a life expectancy of 81.5 years is the lifestyle choice of its citizens, which contrasts with that of people in the UK, for example. The Japanese have a diet which is proportionally low in processed fat, in particular saturated fats, which means that diseases such as heart disease and associated types of cancer which play a major role in nations such as the UK and North America due to an unhealthy diet and rising rates of obesity. In addition, the Japanese do not indulge in alcohol in a social way as other nations do, reducing liver disease and the other illnesses which come with the toxin. The country with the lowest life expectancy is Zambia, which is an extremely poor, deprived and underdeveloped country within Africa whose other southern nations also have an extremely low life expectancy due to similar reasons. An unequal spread of world resources is a major contributor to this which is linked to the relative climate of each country resulting in famine due to both lack of food and failed crops because of harsh temperatures and a lack of water. Clean water is rarely available and the sources used for drinking result in the wide spread of cholera and diarrhoea. Malaria is also widespread, as well as the other extremes of HIV and Aids. In summary, LEDCs generally have a low life expectancy due healthcare which is underdeveloped and insufficient for the number of patients who are ill due to the other problems of the country as mentioned above. MEDCs have a higher life expectancy due to a vast and developed healthcare system, for example the NHS in the UK, and the education of the nation teaching the importance of a healthy life style, how to prevent disease and most importantly how to cure it.
Question: 'More than a third of babies born in 2010 will live to 100'. Will this be a burden or benefit to future society?
Interesting article here
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HIV/AIDS Prevalence
I apologise for generalising these two different states of health as one, unfortunately they are often grouped when in the media and therefore some resources do not distinguish between the two. I studied HIV/AIDS at school and found it to be a fascinating topic with an interesting and somewhat questionable origin. Before we look more deeply into the global patterns, here are a few key facts about HIV/AIDS:
- HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus
- AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
- AIDS was believed to first appear in Central Africa in 1959 but wasn't fully recognised until 1981
- Swaziland is the area in the world which is most affected by HIV - with a prevalence of ~30%
- There are more than 100,000 people living with HIV in the UK
- In the world more than 33 million people are living with HIV/AIDS
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HIV/AIDS Prevalence
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HIV is most prevalent within the continent of Africa, with Southern Asia being the nation with the second highest amount of records. In Africa, there is little contraception used due to being unable to access them or the fact that such methods are against the religion of some settlements. Even if contraception is provided by aid groups/NGOs or subsidised by governments trying to lower the birth rate or reducing the spread of HIV, people are not always aware of how to use contraception due to a lack of education and therefore its effectiveness is lost. As a large proportion of sexual intercourse is unprotected, HIV is spread as a STI (sexual transmitted infection) and as it is often culturally normal for polygamy to occur; one man can infect a number of women who may have more sexual partners. It is now becoming more frequent for children to be born with HIV, as it is an infection of the blood, if their mother is a carrier of the disease. In the Western world, the number of HIV cases is rapidly rising, particularly in the UK. The first initial cases were normally within the gay communities as condoms were sparsely used and HIV passed between them as an STI however as casual sex and unprotected sex are now occurring more often, HIV is prevalent between all groups and sexualities of society. Ironically, this is once again due to contraception not being used, just like in LEDCs, even though these nations have high levels of education and knowledge as to why contraception is important. However, the occurrence of death due to HIV/AIDS in these countries is significantly lower than LEDCs as they have the advanced medicine to prolong the life of people with HIV.
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HIV/AIDS Related Deaths
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HIV/AIDS Related Deaths
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It is clear to see from this map that Africa has the largest amount of deaths due to HIV and AIDS as well as the highest prevalence of HIV. In 2002 nearly 80% of the 2.6 million deaths from AIDS occurred in sub-Saharan Africa where the disease, usually untreated, caused more than 6000 deaths every day and accounted for almost one in five of all deaths and half of the deaths of adults aged 15 to 59 years. This is primarily due to the fact that there is a lack of medicine and treatment available to people who are infected with HIV to prolong this stage and stop AIDS developing which is when death can occur. In 2002 HIV/AIDS caused 40% of deaths in children under 15 years old, who are most likely to be born with it due to blood genetics. Though cases in the developed world are rising, the deaths are significantly less frequent due to superior medical care to stop AIDS developing and prolong life.
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Click here for a link, which will take you to a 'Geofile' which is addressing Aids in the 21st Century - a great piece of extended reading which gives a broad overview of this vast topic.
Question: Do you think AIDS, as a communicable disease, has more of an impact on development of a country than a non-communicable disease such as obesity?
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