Assignment #5

Even though there is an enormous amount of money being poured into developing countries the overall public health of these countries seems to be declining. This is due to many different factors such as the money having strings attached and the money not getting to the actual countries for aid. In Ghana where corruption is particularly widespread 80 percent of the funds that are donated do not actually reach their intended destination or purpose. There are many donors that specify how their money must be spent and these large donations are often not very efficient because they are spent on things that are not as helpful to the overall public health. There are also very large donations that are triggered by emotional responses; the most recent of these is the earthquakes in Haiti and Chili. Those two are minor problems compared to the largest problem which takes the form of the lack of health personnel. The majority of the doctors that are being trained in these developing countries are leaving due to financial reasons. They are being offered more money to go and work in other developed countries such as the U.S. or England. The massive amount of money that is being poured into these countries is being spent on drugs or items that will help the sick, but the fact of the matter remains that there aren’t any health personnel to distribute the drugs or take care of these patients because they are all leaving the country.

The two most important factors in determining the overall public health of a country are increased maternal survival and increased overall life expectancy. If these two things are rising then that means that the health of the population is increasing. But if just the elimination of diseases is focused on and these rates do not go up the massive amounts of money that are being used to aid developing countries is all for nothing. If the maternal survival rates are rising then more mothers are surviving childbirth and their children are healthier. This has a huge impact on a society and if this rate is rising then the overall health care is doing very well. Maternal survival rates also have a large impact on the overall life expectancy. If children are surviving past the age of five then they have a much higher chance of making it to adulthood. The deaths from diseases in adults do have an impact on life expectancy but nowhere near the impact that’s dying infants have on the overall expectancy.

In some cases the diseases are actually worsening because of the lacking of good hospitals and good healthcare that’s can help the victims of these diseases prolong their lives. One thing that is mentioned is the reuse of needles for patients. This is obviously very dangerous and can lead to the spread of multiple diseases. This is only one of many unsanitary practices that could take place. Others include improper cleaning of surgical utensils and improper testing of blood in blood-banks. Another failure is that many people are given HIV treatment but do not complete the treatment which just boost the resistance to antibiotics. They are then susceptible to many other types of sicknesses due to a weakened immune system and have a resistance to antibiotics which is a deadly combination.