Exam 1. Global Health Transitions. Social Sciences Essay

EXAM I
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Exam One
This paper is a culmination of three essays chosen from global health transitions, global health priorities, and socio-economic determinants of health categories.
Global Health Transitions: The vast amounts of causes of death are entirely avoidable. Why aren’t they? What would you do about it? How does that contrast with what is done about it? How does it compare with what is being done about it?
It is surprising to realize that the majority of deaths around the globe are preventable. Let us have a look at the 2018 World Health Organization (WHO) Report on the leading causes of death in a bid to get a better glimpse of the whole picture. The WHO report showed that more than half of all deaths in relatively low resourced countries were caused by infectious diseases and maternal causes that are traceable to the child, pregnancy complication, and inadequacy of nutritional components (WHO, 2018). The high-income counterparts had less than seven %of their deaths attributable to such causes. The lower respiratory system infections cause relatively high mortality across both high-income and low-income countries, but its adversity is more pronounced in low-income nations (WHO, 2018). According to the same WHO report, it is more worrying to know that non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are attributed to more than 71% in the global arena; granular details showed that approximately 37 % are confined to low-income nations while about 88 % occur high-income countries. These findings indicate that NCDs contribute around 78 % of the mortality globally. The Center for Disease Director in 2011 raised concern that many people succumb to preventable health conditions.
Given the prevailing circumstance that contextualizes the leading causes of death, we should ask ourselves one critical question! Are these causes of diseases preventable to a given extent? It is arguable essential to note that majority of the death causatives are avoidable. Some infectious diseases, for instance, malaria and HIV/AID, account for millions of death in developing countries. These diseases are quite manageable if we have systems that are bold enough to boost prevention efforts and ensure timely and effective responses in terms of treatment. These illnesses have continued to cause deaths due to inadequate resources and inappropriate use of available resources; this makes the healthcare system fragile and, thus, cannot mount an effective response to preventable and treatable illnesses like malaria. Infectious diseases like lower respiratory diseases are manageable and preventable if the health system is entrenched with the capacity to initiate real-time treatment through early diagnosis and immediate treatment interventions. NCDs continue to ravage the lives across the globe; diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and ischemic heart diseases continue to cause death in worrying scales. NCDs are commonly underpinned by lifestyle patterns and heavily calorie-laden foods. Deaths related to NCDs are highly avoidable if we can adopt behavioral patterns that promote better healthy living.
We can avoid death associated with communicable and non-communicable diseases if we adopt holistic and comprehensive approaches to disease management. The developing countries need to revamp their healthcare system through the increased infusion of capital into the healthcare system and ensure that there is an effective and appropriate use of such resources. Most developing nations still allocate lesser funding than what Abuja Declaration recommends (Barugahare & Lie, 2015). Despite budgetary constraints, developing countries are riddled with inappropriate use of resources; the media have narrated how available results are misused through corruptions and other scandalous ways, leaving the health care system suffocated. It is not only a healthcare system that needs strengthening but all other sectors, including water and sanitation and economic wellbeing, should also be given a boost. In crux, all determinant of health should be given appropriate focus though the reasonable allocation of funding and proper utilization of available resources; this should be coupled with feasible strategies that are initiated through innovation and creativity. The donor funding in developing countries should complement already strengthened health systems in such nations.
NCDs are inescapable from global discussions on the ischemic disease, diabetes, heart disease, amongst others. A lot of strategies have been initiated in a bid to combat these illnesses. Nations through institutions have launched aggressive efforts in research and training that are geared towards better management of NCDs. These efforts revolved around increased funding and increased awareness of disease prevention and treatment. Management of NCDs in a global perspective has been quite challenging. It has been complicated by dietary practices, sedentary lifestyles, behavioral patterns, and available foods; this scenario underpins the emergence of NCDs as one of the greatest threats to global health.
So how can we solve this puzzle of NCDs? We shall not succeed if we do not embrace a more comprehensive approach that what is currently being done. The commercial food industries are churning out foods that are laced with excessive sugar content to consumers who are in most of the cases are led by physiological desires and being misled by the advertisement of media. The industries are releasing toxic fumes effluents, and our crop farms are being laced with chemical toxins, especially in th use of pesticides. Some of our practices, such as smoking and lifestyle behaviors, are critical precedents to cancers, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. The unhealthy dietary practices and other toxins are among the major causes of NCDs. Significant efforts have been advanced to combat the diseases, but more need to be done. We should ensure that we should make laws that are enforceable regarding sugary and toxin levels and ensure that we enhance the level of health awareness practices amongst the people. Such approaches will go a long way in ensuring the burden of preventable diseases, especially NCDs that include diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers, is significantly reduced. Both developing and developed countries need to relook at their approach to the management of NCDs and infectious diseases in the light of emerging intricacies like capitalism, social constructs, competing for interest, legislation, dwindling resources, bursting population numbers, and toxicities, among others.
Global Health Priorities: We have discussed global achievement length. Do you feel they are enough/could they be more? Should they? Defend your stance.
There is no time health priorities have taken affront space than now. The world is grappling coronavirus diseases (COVID-19), which has caused unprecedented waves of repercussions across the globe. The leaders and organization are voicing their health priority concerns currently; this contrast with earlier times when healthcare discourse was majorly discussed under the realms of healthcare and its associated organization. The shockwaves caused by COVID-19 constitute a testimony that the healthcare system is unpredictable and can create a profound impact on other sectors and spheres of life. Economy and socio-political wellbeing aspects of humanity are currently reeling in suffocation. We were never ready for COVID-19, as illustrated by the contemporary global panic, inadequate knowledge on the disease, conspiracy theories, overstrained health human resources, and limited healthcare capacity to handle the pandemic.
Our contemporary situation in healthcare permeates through all our spheres of our lives. We are aware of where we have come from and what we have learned on global health priorities and achievements. We have made landmark discoveries and successes in healthcare in terms of preventive and curative medicines. We should be proud of our accomplishments that we have made preventive medicines through the discovery and the use of vaccines to combat diseases. Deathly diseases likely polio, measles, influenza, hepatitis, just to mention a few, have been contained appropriately through the use of vaccines. We have been able to developed state of the art diagnostic and interventional medical equipment and technologies that have provided better alternative approaches to disease managem...