In the United States people tend not to think twice about medical care and where they are going to go for their next doctor visit. It is a luxury that unfortunately most people in places like Guatemala do not have. In most parts of the world getting proper medical care is almost impossible. There are more than three billion people in the world that live on less than two dollars and fifty cents a day and there are 22,000 children that die from poverty every day. According to an article provided by NBC News, "More than 200 million children worldwide under age 5 do not get basic health care, leading to nearly 10 million deaths annually from treatable ailments like diarrhea and pneumonia, a U.S.-based charity said Wednesday" (www.nbcnews.com). Poor children and adults are at a higher risk of dying and contracting diseases than those that have money. The reasons why most countries suffer from poor medical care is because the …show more content…
country has slow industrial growth, lack of economic stability, over population, and etc.
Due to poverty Guatemala individuals do not have medical and health care. Because of poor medical access there are a lot of people in desperate need. The United States can help fix the issue of poor medical access in Guatemala by sending in more voluntary nurses and doctors.
There is a family in Antigua Guatemala, who lived in a house made up of tarps and metal pieces of garbage. There was no floor to the house just dirt and no doors to the house to keep out bugs or animals. Six people lived in the house grandpa, mom, dad, daughter, son, and a beautiful baby girl. The grandpa was very sick and could not go to the doctor to get medicine because it was too expensive, too far, and he had no transportation. His health was compromising the health of everyone else in the house including the newborn baby born at home because the one hospital is not accessible.
Guatemala is number 78 in the world for medical care. They struggle with medical care due to the fact that the country is under educated, the people are un-immune to many diseases, they do not have the funding to provide doctors or hospitals, and due to poor infrastructure of Guatemala, there is not expedient transportation to medical resources. The education in Guatemala is very minimal due to the lack of teachers and resources. Children in Guatemala are not required to attend schooling unlike the children of the United States. This is due to funding schools in Guatemala is not necessarily accessible. The difficulty in getting vaccines for certain diseases has led to a high mortality rate in children and adults over the age of 45. Some of the diseases that are somewhat easy to contract throughout the country are Malaria, Rabies, Yellow fever, Giardia, and Hepatitis. The funding throughout Guatemala for medical resources is lacking, that being said there is not enough funds to provide many hospitals or clinics throughout the country. There are not many hospitals because of the funding so transportation to hospitals takes time and is not ideal for many citizens. In order for places like Guatemala to increase and have better medical care it is up to other countries that succeed to lend a hand. As a country the United Stated can lend a hand with world health issues, there are many different organizations that can lend a hand but one of the biggest organizations is the Red Cross. The Red Cross consists of volunteers that provide time, money, and blood. "The American Red Cross, together with the Haitian Red Cross and more than 80 Red Cross and Red Crescent national societies, helped deliver the urgent assistance that Haitians so desperately needed " (www.Redcross.org). The Red Cross is a medical relief group that helps countries when there are natural disasters receive the medical attention they need and the supplies they need. In addition to the Red Cross, there are programs that send caregivers to different countries. For example, one of these programs is nursing volunteering. Nursing volunteering is sending nursing students to different countries to provide care to people and children that are struggling. In order for the United States and other countries that are succeeding to lend a hand they need to send more volunteers to poor countries. With the lack of medical aid or facilities that are available Guatemala is truly in need of help. As an ever demanding medical need arises in this part of the world, those that do not need the medical attention seem unaffected by this. Roth mentions in his book The Achievement Habits about “What If’s” (Roth, 89). So what if the situation was reversed and the United States was facing the same medical situation or lack thereof. What would be the outcome if the United States had to depend on other countries to supply the medical care that is needed. As it stands most Americans do not even think about not having the funds to provide for their own medical care. They go to the doctor for the smallest things and aren't necessarily fortunate for what they do have. What if they had to wait for months at a time just to see a doctor or nurse. How would they feel about that? A possible “Nasal thinking” (Roth, 90) is introduced, as a way to think of a idea by looking of it differently. Instead of send doctors and nurses down to the country for a short time, wouldn’t it make more sense to send them down for a longer term, to teach locals how to do more things, and help supply the needed medications that cure the most common diseases. This would increase the survival rate as well as educate the locals so that they would be able to treat the areas sick better and more proficiently.
As Paul Farmer pursues to bring health care to impoverished nations, he builds the health care systems, is able to provide services for ones living in poverty, and speaks about the improved health care system in Cuba. While watching Paul Farmer’s interview, he made it clear that giving impoverished nations health care will benefit them all. He says, “Is
“The only real nation is humanity” (Farmer 123). This quote represents a huge message that is received in, Tracy Kidder’s, Mountains Beyond Mountains. This book argues that universal healthcare is a right and not a privilege. Kidder’s book also shows the audience that every individual, no matter what the circumstances, is entitled to receive quality health care. In the book Kidder represents, Paul Farmer, a man who spends his entire life determined to improve the health care of impoverished areas around the world, namely Haiti, one of the poorest nations in the world. By doing this the audience learns of the horrible circumstances, and the lack of quality health care that nations like Haiti live with everyday, why every person has the right to healthcare no matter what, and how cost effectiveness should not determine whether or not these people get to live or die. Two texts that also argue this idea are Monte Leach’s “Ensuring Health Care as a Global Human Right,” and Darshak Sanghavi’s “Is it Cost Effective to Treat the World’s Poor.” Leach’s article is an interview with Benjamin Crème that illustrates why food, shelter, education, and healthcare are human rights that have to be available to everyone. He shares many of the same views on health care as Farmer, and the two also share similar solutions to this ongoing problem. Leach also talks about the rapidly growing aids epidemic, and how it must be stopped. Like farmer, he also argues that it is easier to prevent these diseases then to cure them. Furthermore, Sanghavi’s article represents many of the questions that people would ask about cost effectiveness. Yet similar to Farmer’s views, Sanghavi argues that letting the poor d...
Having been born and raised in a third world country, I can say with certainty that I have experienced the ravaging effect of poverty and lack of health care providers. I still
The richest 20% in the world gorge themselves on over 70% of the world’s resources while continuing to exploit the poorest, who are forced to live in desolate poverty. Guatemala is no exception to this, as over 50% of their population live under the poverty line. With a population of around fifteen million people, Guatemala is the most populous country in Central America, but is also one of the poorest. Guatemala’s extreme impoverishment is because of the struggle between the poor mixed-blood natives and the rich Spanish descendants who run the country, the interference of other countries and the extortion of the country with deceitful loans and conditions by the World Bank and other associations.
According to NCBI, one of the largest concerns for the Peruvian people is public and environmental health. The country has a population of about 30 million people and nearly one third of them fall below the poverty line and lack access to even the most basic health care services. That means that about 10 million people in Peru aren’t able to receive medical care when they are sick or hurt, which is a huge chunk of the country’s people. Although the Peruvian government does offer some programs and benefits for the citizens, many of the citizens don’t receive the benefits because they are simply unaware that t...
Haiti is a prime example of how human needs in one area of the world are interdependent with social conditions elsewhere in the world. Haiti, for most of its history has been overwhelmed with economic mismanage and political violence. While in Haiti Dr. Farmer discovers that his patients live in poverty, filth, pain and famine. Many of the Haitian residents will die young due to diseases or violence, especially when their own doctors are inexperienced and practice medicine in less than savory clinics. How do you deliver quality healthcare to a destitute area of the world when its residence, although may be cured of their disease, will return to no clean running water, an extreme lack of quality food and basic necessitates that majority of us take for granted, no safe shelters from disease carrying insects, and no means to protect themselves from airborne and sexually transmitted diseases. Returning to the same conditions that caused the diseases in the first place, without a change in the environment, can be viewed as a never ending battle.
Guatemala is a small country located in the Americans it's barely the size of Tennessee. Guatemala is bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, Honduras to the east and El Salvador to the southeast .(Guatemala by Kari Schuetz ) Guatemala has comfortable weather neither too hot nor cold. Its seasons tend to be divided into 2 parts the wet season and the dry season. From mid-May to October or November it's the wet season it's generally very rainy. From November through April is the dry cooler season with an average of 64°F.
Throughout the world, in countries rich and poor, people have no access to basic physical and mental healthcare nor to immunizations from infectious disease. Some people have no access because they lack the resources to buy and the state does not provide it. Others may be able to afford healthcare but because there are no services available in their communities they must do without it.
Guatemala has experienced many significant changes to their government in the past sixty years. The government faced military coups, governmental reforms along with political and social revolutions. Many political forces have influenced Guatemala and transformed it into the country that it is today.
All these places provided their community with either free healthcare or they paid little to nothing to get the help that they need it. Hearing the different stories from the people in the film and it 's sad that they 're suffering because they can 't get the proper medical attention. What I don 't understand is if we have the resources to help someone get better why are we using it. Americans are very selfish and all we think about is ourselves. Instead of finding ways to improve us as a whole all we think about is how we can get ahead or how we can be better than the next person. "These rates are some of the highest in the world but, unlike most developed countries, the United States does not offer health care coverage as a right of citizenship. Most developed countries have a universal healthcare program, which means access to all citizens." If other countries are moving forward and developing why aren 't we following in their footsteps so we can better ourselves as well. Even having insurance in the United States doesn 't really mean much if you need serious surgery or medical attention. Insurance companies will find anyway or reason to deny you the medical attention you need. A woman in the movie was denied this particular form of treatment for cancer all because she didn 't inform them that she has a urinary tract infection that she treat herself. That sounds
Poverty and health infections are inextricably related. The term “diseases of poverty” is used to describe disabilities or diseases that are more prevalent in poor countries than their developed counterparts. It is estimated that 50, 00 people, of which 30,000 are children, die due to poverty-related diseases each day in underdeveloped countries (Stevens, 2008). This is exclusive of other millions of people who die from unpreventable diseases in these countries. Nearly three-quarters of people living in the third world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, fight to survive without clean water or food. In some cases, diseases of poverty are considered to be obstacles to the economic development that would curb poverty. In contrast to diseases of poverty there are diseases of affluence. Affluence diseases are ailments or disabilities that are more prevalent in developed countries. Activists claim that virtually all diseases of poverty in underdeveloped countries are neglected. Many scholars argue that the pharmaceutical industry has not taken any substantial steps in investing and has failed to devote sufficient efforts in research for these diseases. The discussion in this paper expands more on some of the common diseases in low-income countries; also seeks to explore why these diseases are
I traveled to Lima,Peru, providing primary care services,medication,and preventive health education to low-income areas.I assisted physicians in seeing hundreds of people.Many of the health problems we witnessed were common,such as diabetes and high blood pressure.Without our clinic,these people would go untreated,making their conditions worse.One patient had an old IUD that was infected and embedded into the uterine wall.Unable to receive care to have it removed,she had to live in pain.This experienced showed me the importance that basic health care be provided to
Growing up in a country full of poverty and lack of proper medication was a tough environment to be born into. I still remember my mom crying about how she lost my bigger brother due to money struggle and lack of medication. She explained that before my sister and I were born, we had a bigger brother; however upon his birth he was infected and died within seventh day. Lack of medication in a country full of poverty was just what my parent and my bother didn’t need yet couldn’t escape.
Access to health care varies vastly across the globe. Hence, issues surrounding access to health care vary as well. For example, reports from the World Health Organization indicate that often, families have to pay out of pocket for health care and suffer the consequences of impoverishment owing to the absence of universal
The new theme for healthcare in the United States seems to be a push universal health care, just as other developed countries have because it is best for the people of a nation. So, what happens when the population of that nation is 4 times larger than another? Can we adequately compare or utilize that country as a model for universal health care systems when population sizes and dominant cultural characteristics are so different? The country of Brittan is part of the National Health Service (NHS) overseen by the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.