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Contrasting definition of health
Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health
Concepts of health promotion
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The aim of this essay is to discuss critically the impact of two global health promotion initiatives, citing examples from two developing countries. To set the stage for this discussion, in this introduction the author will define terms like ‘Health’, ‘Global Health Promotion’ and ‘Developing countries’. The World Health Organisation (WHO) constitution stipulates that, “The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental human rights of every human being, without the distinction of race, religion, and political belief, economic or social condition”(1). Health promotion is concerned with empowering people with access to this fundamental human right. In 1986, health promotion was defined in the Ottawa Charter as, “the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health” (2). It provides people with sufficient means or channels to achieve and maintain their health, which refers to, “A state of complete physical, social and mental wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity”(3). The achievement of this state has been one of the major global challenges of the 21st century, especially in developing countries. The term developing country is difficult to define, since there is no internationally recognized agreement on the meaning of; developed, developing and under-developed countries. Several parameters are used to categorize nations into each group, with considerable overlap in the criteria. For, instance, according to the World Bank, developing countries refer to nations with either low or middle level Gross National Product (GNP) per capita income. However, five high income countries, China, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Singapore are classifie... ... middle of paper ... ...rsson N, Milne D, Mokoena T, Masisi M. Community views about routine HIV testing and antiretroviral treatment in Botswana: signs of progress from a cross sectional study. BMC International Health and Human Rights 2007;7(1):5. (27) Medical News Today. Botswana's ARV National Roll-Out Complete In All Hospitals. 2004; Available at: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/17060.php. Accessed 7/9/2010, 2010. (28) WHO. "3 by 5" Country Information. 2010; Available at: http://www.who.int/3by5/countryprofiles/en/. Accessed 7/7/2010, 2010. (29) UNAID. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS: AIDS Epidemic Update 2009. 2009; Available at: http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/EpiUpdate/EpiUpdArchive/2009/default.asp. Accessed 7/9/2010, 2010. (30) Renwick N. Global Society's Response to HIV/AIDS: Botswana's Experience. Global Society 2007;21(2):133-153.
In conclusion, the ultimate significance to this type of work is to improve the quality of healthcare in these extremely impoverished nations. This argument is represented in Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains, Monte Leach’s “Ensuring Health Care as a Global Human Right”, and Darshark Sanghavi’s “Is it Cost Effective to Treat the World’s Poor.” The idea that universal healthcare is a human right is argued against in Michael F. Cannon’s “A “Right” to health care?” Cannon claims that it would not work, and fills the holes that the other authors leave in their arguments. All of these articles share the same ultimate goal, and that is to provide every individual with adequate health care, and to not let so many people die from things that could easily have been prevented or treated.
Compounding these exceptionally troubling numbers is a significant population with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Again estimates vary, but the United Nations projects the national prevalence rate to be 4.5 percent of the population. Other estimates place the rate as high as 12 percent in the urban population and 5 percent in rural regions. As a small “win”, the infection rate for HIV/AIDS has recently shifted downward due to significant UNAIDS/WHO efforts (Haiti – Health).
Statistics have been show a frightening increase in AIDS/HIV cases. As of the year 2012, South Africa has had the most cases of HIV/AIDS coming to a total of 6,070,800 ("Country Comparison :: HIV/AIDS”). This is a huge contributing factor to this conspira...
All four countries are undergoing an epidemiologic transition as treatment and control of infectious diseases continues to improve. However, the major issues that affect each country and how the country has responded to their problems are vastly different. It is funny, but in the midst of writing this reflection, I somehow found myself in a conversation with someone who was horrified by the quality of healthcare in “third world” countries. This assumption that poor countries have horrendous quality of healthcare is not uncommon. Fortunately, these assumptions are wrong. Though developing countries are facing the unique problem of operating a healthcare system in an environment with inadequate resources and public health infrastructures, they have managed to develop incredible solutions. In Latin America and the Caribbean, a combination international and national interventions has been so successful that these countries have the highest percentage of ART coverage in any low-to-middle-income countries (Garcia et al., 2014). Cuba’s WHO health ranking is 39, approximately the same as the U.S. and achieved at a fraction of the price. As countries shift into the third epidemiologic transition, many of the basic systems for obtaining medications and seeing health care professionals are already in place. These four have taken the first important step and declared that healthcare is a right for all, something that even the U.S. has failed to do. Though they must continue building upon their current infrastructure, they have the advantage of hindsight and seeing what has worked in other countries. As we have seen during our study of the U.S. and other OECD countries, there is no one perfect health system. However, I am confident that the health systems that emerge from these developing countries will be one that works for the
As recently as 1990, there were some regions of the world that had remained relatively unscathed by AIDS. Today, however, there is not a single country around the world that has wholly escaped the AIDS epidemic. As the epidemic has matured, some of the developed nations which were hard hit by the epidemic in the 1980s, such as the United States, have reported a slowing in the rate of new infections and a stabilization among existing cases with lower mortality rates and an extension of post-diagnosis lifespan. However, despite the changing face of the global AIDS pandemic, one factor remains unchanged: no region of the world bears a higher AIDS-related burden than sub-Saharan Africa. This paper examines the demographic effects of AIDS in Africa, focusing on the hardest-hit countries of sub-Saharan Africa.
"UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work." Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) (2009): n. pag. UNAIDS. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Global Health Initiative (GHI) is an approach to the U.S. global health policy that seeks to strengthen, streamline, and increase the efficiency of existing U.S. global health programs(GHI 2011). There are seven guiding principles of the GHI: (1) Focusing on women, girls and gender equality; (2) Sustainable country-owned programs; (3) Health systems strengthening; (4) Promoting global health partnership; (5) Integration; (6) Research and innovation; and (7) Improve metrics, monitoring and evaluation(GHI 2011)
Health promotion is a multifaceted movement with a core value on respect, empowerment, equity, inclusion and social justice (MacDougall 2002). Aims to achieve holistic health, while it is influenced by medical and social determinants. These determinants which aids to deter...
Half of the world’s cases are found in what is referred to as the AIDS belt, a chain of countries in eastern and southern Africa that is home to two percent of the global population. The main vehicle for spreading HIV throughout Africa is heterosexual intercourse. In contrast, this is the opposite compared to the U.S. where the virus is usually transmitted through homosexual intercourse or contaminated syringes shared by drug users. Besides heterosexual intercourse, HIV transmission through transfusion and contaminated medical equipment is common in sub-Saharan Africa. Africans infected with HIV die much sooner after diagnosis than HIV infected people in other parts of the world. In industrialized countries, the survival time after diagnosis of AIDS ranges from 9 to 26 months, but in Africa the survival time for patients is 5 to 9 months (UNAIDS 3). Factors, such as lower access to health care, poorer quality of health care services, poorer levels of average health and nutrition, and greater exposure to pathogens that cause infection all contribute to the shorter survival in Africa. It is difficult to stop the flood of AIDS cases in Africa because it is not yet known by researchers the factors that contribute to outstanding prevalence of the disease among heterosexuals. This diagnosis will help determine how likely it is that heterosexual epidemics will spread to Asia or the West.
The authors worked for the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies which belongs to AIDS resea...
To reach a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, an individual or group must be able to identify and to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment. Health is, therefore, seen as a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities. Therefore, health promotion is not just the responsibility of the health sector, but goes beyond healthy life-styles to wellbeing. Health promotion goes beyond health care. It puts health on the agenda of policy makers in all sectors and at all levels. It directs policy makers to be aware of the health consequences of their decisions and accept their responsibilities for
The purpose of this paper is to exam a Healthy People 2020 health topic. This paper will discuss HIV; human immunodeficiency virus. This paper will assess, interpret, justify, evaluate and appraise HIV disease, its history, health statistics, preventive measures, the role of the nurse and finally an appraisal of the health programs and availability of supportive care.
In United States, the HIV epidemic reached its peak in the 1980s when the number of infected reached 130,000 people per year. Infected women ...
London, England. The.. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine n.d., Session 5: The role of the state. in global health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, England. Ricci J.
HIV does not only affect the well-being of individuals, it has large impacts on households, communities and even nations as a whole. Peer discussions and personal research has also made me realize that some of the countries suffering from this HIV epidemic also rather unfortunately suffer from other infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, relative poverty and economic stagnation. Despite these setbacks, new inte...