Contemporary Health Issue of Global Significance - Essay Sample

Introduction

Health is one of the fundamental requirements for a human being. Moreover, being healthy physically help individuals to participate actively in the daily activities. The type of food that is consumed also plays a significant role in determining how strong and fit the body will be since it helps in fighting diseases and staying fresh. The research will look at the role played by the worldwide health actors as well as other institutions in tackling various health issues through internationally sponsored interventions. The paper will also explore insurance cover as the main global health issue around the world. During the entire discussion, the concept of neoliberalism and dependency theory will be incorporated to help bring a better understanding of the contemporary global health issues

Determinants of Diseases of Global Significance

Physical Determinants

Physical factors that determine whether a disease is of a global significance entails conditions of the environment in which an individual is born, play, live, learn and work. Individuals born in poor background often lacks medical coverage. Thus in the events that they become sick, they are not able to get proper medication leading to deaths. Living in places that have unrecompensed levels of air pollutants can lead to an emergence of dangerous diseases capable of causing devastating harm to a large group of people. According to World Health Organization (WHO), there are always high chances of asthma outbreaks among children and adults in countries with high level of ozone pollution. When the prevalence of asthma goes up above the national average of the nation, then there is a global concern for the disease (Creswell 2011, p. 20194). WHO also says that poor quality of air is capable of worsening asthma symptoms mainly in children. Other Physical factors that determine whether an infection is of a global significance include built environment likes transportation or building, physical barriers such as people with disabilities and housing, neighborhoods or homes. Additionally, WHO believes that exposure to physical hazards as well as toxic substances and natural environments like weather, plants and climate change make individuals vulnerable to infections. The argument put forward is supported by the dependency theory. According to the theory, almost quarter of all global diseases can be reduced by regulating the physical factors such as ozone layer depletion. Dependency theory holds that increasing taxation on the substances tobacco and in industries that produce chlorofluorocarbons CFCs helps in minimizing the amount of smoke released into the environment. Therefore, it will contribute to the reduction in the depletion of the ozone due to low rates of global warming. Thus, cases of asthma and skin burn become minimal.

Political Determinants

Health according to the majority of people is a political choice. Politics is a continuous power struggle between competing interests. When health is being viewed at the angle of political determinants, it merely means analyzing how various power institutions, processes, constellation as well as ideological positions that affect health in various political systems within different levels of governance (Leach 2013, p.15). Countries with political good will on heath help in pushing for health insurance cover that is affordable by everybody. According to Bambra, health is political due to its uneven distribution, many of its determinants depending on political action and being that health is a vital dimension of people right as well as citizenship.

Political activities on poverty as well as global health inequalities were the critical information during the first world report on health in 2005. According to the WHO of 2008, it passes information suggesting that health is shaped by factors such as power, distribution of money as well as resources at the local, national and global levels.

During the outbreak of diseases like asthma and other contagious diseases that can kill a larger population within a short period, it often takes the goodwill of politicians from various countries to intervene and help the affected states. For a nation to build a sustainable health system, it usually requires the goodwill of a government in a particular country. Sustainable healthcare system entails affordable insurance cover to both the working and unemployed groups in a nation. According to World Health Report, various health crisis witnessed around the world is as a result of rich countries that are in need to control global health over the developing countries. According to the dependency theory, the association between third world and first world countries is asymmetrical. The politics of the developed countries have huge impacts on the global health compared to those of developing nations. They donate more resources to counter the outbreak of diseases such as asthma (Stronks et al., 2013, p. 402) Therefore, advanced countries play a crucial role in determining diseases of global significance.

Cultural Determinants

In many traditional settings around the world, people used to view health as the absence of disease. However, with the description of health as the absence of illness, there are several limitations such as failure of development in medical cover and technologies that are witnessed currently as well as reliance on the belief with little understanding of human biology and the diseases. However, according to the recent definition, health is the complete mental, physical, as well as social wellbeing and not only the absence of the diseases. Influence of culture in determining the health issue of global significant depends on the broad range of people beliefs, sense of having an identity as well as social based philosophies values and practices.

When cultural practices such as consumption of alcohol become excessive, there is always emergency heart diseases, liver diseases, stroke, cancer of the throat and high blood pressure. Increased emergence of the mention diseases due to cultural practices can lead to global health issues that require the attention of various stakeholders. Additionally, the philosophy held by many cultural beliefs such as the use of traditional medicine to treat diseases like HIV and AIDS leading to spread and death of people determine health issue of global importance. Finally, cultural belief on religion that prohibits individual from the use of contraceptive in protection against STIs and unwanted pregnancies plays a crucial role in determining health issues of global significance. Therefore, many global health actors will come in to intervene and provide necessary education thereby attracting the worldwide attention primarily on the sector of health (Hinton 2011, p. 783) Dependency theory holds that addressing the issue of cultural belief on health matters is very critical to avoid problems blaming of inequality has the as the reason why many developing nations have several cases of death due to lack of awareness.

Global Health Actors and Institutions

Global health actors and institutions are a group of actors having a common goal towards enhancing health outcomes (Say et al. 2014, p. 323). Some health actors work independently, other work collaboratively while some antagonistically in ensuring that health coverage is cheaply available to everybody. The health actors carry out their duties within the required set of laws, norms, strategies, structures, relationship as well as power dynamics. There are three major types of global actors that work to improve overall health outcome. First, there are multinational organizations. It includes the organization within the system of United Nations relevant to health and organization that is outside the system pertinent to health. Secondly, government to government or sub-government levels health actors. Finally, non-government organization health actors

Various global health actors have played a significant role in helping to control and manage diseases that severely affected people. Due to the worldwide health actors, there has been the emergence of various conditions that caused significant damage to people's health thereby contributing to the reduction in the number of deaths (Reis et al. 2015, p.1383). Diseases like smallpox have been controlled due to the combined efforts of various global health actors. Discovery of the cause of cholera as well as overcoming of yellow fever was as a result of the combined efforts of the global health team. Additionally, due to the health actors, there have been funds used to purchase drugs such as antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) used to prevent the multiplication of HIV thus avoiding severe effects of the virus on the human body. Additionally, various global health teams that have been on the fire front to donate fund used to manage diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.

The multinational global health actors have various organizations dealing with the issue relevant to health. The world health organization (WHO), united nation international children's emergency fund UNICEF, United nation office on drugs and crime (UNODC) are an example of multinational global health actors. In the health sector, who plays various roles in ensuring that there is healthy generation within the community. According to WHO, the first years after the conception of the child is the period with the most significant risk as well as the opportunity that can be used to bring a difference in the life of a child. After conception period, rapid brain development often occurs as well social and emotional developments which are critical for overcoming globalization challenges and economic production. The fund released WHO helps in ensuring that the cost of maternity is affordable by the majority of the people especially the poor from the developing countries. When good health is invested in the children at a young age those coming from the poor background, it helps realizations of the Sustainable Development Goal thus minimizing the gap between the rich and the poor. Due to the contribution of the fund by the WHO in South East Asia for the past three decades, there has been a significant decline in cases of mortality rates in that region (Grant 2016). The area has moved from focusing on child survival to healthy development and growth of the child as well as declining the disparity between the poor and the rich. Despite efforts put forward to help bring up a healthy nation, WHO has been criticized for various reasons. WHO has been criticized for over-extension since it tries to address the need of all countries that participate and contribute (Greenhalgh 2015, p. 232). Additionally, WHO has been criticized for overseeing the ministry of health that is one of the weakest departments in the majority of the government.

United nation office on drug and crime as played a vital role in fighting against drug abuse through field research so that people can have more understanding various effects of drugs which are being abused. UNODC discovered that illicit drug being abused as severe consequences on the health of the people. UNODC has contributed significantly to the fight against illegal drug abuse and crime that has to lead to the death of many people especially the youth. The organization has helped fight the menace by setting asides fund to be used in educational campaigns to try and convince the young people not to become addicted to illicit drugs (Lomas et al. 2015, p. 850). The fund has been used to empower the youth so that they can become independent people and helps other people including their families. Additionally, the UNODC fund has been used to treat people who depend on the drug.

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