reply to each of the discussion post. each post response should be a minimum of ONE paragraph

week 2 discussion 1

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While going through the readings for this week what I thought about the most was the overall health care system, in all countries but especially here in the United States. We are considered a high income country yet we are lacking when it comes to our health care system. Many people go without health insurance because they can not afford it and this leads to more health problems and chronic conditions. We understand that health care costs money but so does everything else. We also understand that a lack of regular and proper health care leads to more problems which ultimately costs more money in the long run to deal with. If everyone had access to care then we could reduce the number of chronic conditions and such that would save the country money." The United States spends $765 billion annually (about one-third of our overall health-care dollars) on things that do not make Americans any healthier. Much of the waste in our system has to do with the fact that we run an inefficient health-care system, in which hundreds of health insurance plans all charge different prices for the same surgeries and scans." (Kliff 2015) So one major problem is that there are so many different insurance companies here and they are weak nobody can win in negotiations so it drives prices for insurance even higher. So I guess my question would be what can we do or what are we doing to make this better? I know this has been a cause for discussion for a long time and it is a large problem to deal with, but it doesn't seem like there has been much progress made or any resolution to the bigger problem. I know over time there has been changes made such as things like Obamacare which is a step in the right direction but there is so much more work that needs to be done. 

References:

Kliff,s. (2015) 8 Facts That Explain What's Wrong With American Healthcare

              Retrieved June 7 2021 from:  https://www.vox.com/2014/9/2/6089693/health-care-facts-whats-wrong-american-insurance

Skolink, R. (2016) Global health 101

              Jones & Bartlett Learnig inc.

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2 days ago

Lorena Morales 

Week 2 Discussion 2

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Policy change seems to have the most impact when it comes to creating a change.  It may seem forced, but policy has helped many countries before.  According to Africa Renewal, there is no single solution to enhance the access of the poor to better water supplies, but there are a handful of ways to relieve the situation (Dovi, 2007).  I would personally focus on educating and training the residents of low-income African countries for them to be able to build their own water supply as well as being able to maintain it.  Dovi states that low-income African countries not only have issues with funding for safe water supplies, but they also face the fact that there just aren’t enough professionals out there to do the work that needs to be done in each and every low-income country (Dovi, 2007).  It’s like the old saying says, “teach a man to fish and you feed him for his lifetime.”  Similarly, teach the people of Africa how to build their own water supplies, in a safe and efficient manner, and alleviate one of the biggest concerns in their life.  Our text states that ensuring countries have the right number of trained health personnel in the right places will continue to be challenging, but incentives may also be a way to encourage those who are already trained in a particular field to help the less fortunate (Skolnik, 2020).  In hopes that those already trained are persuaded to train personnel in low-income countries may be one way of enhancing the access of clean water supply to the poor.

 

References:

Dovi, E. (2007, October 1). Bringing Water to Africa's Poor. https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/october-2007/bringing-water-africa%E2%80%99s-poor.

Skolnik, R. L., & Riegelman, R. K. (2020). Global health 101. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

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15 hours ago

Ruby Navarro 

Week 2 Discussion 3

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Describe one disease in a country, an intervention that could be proposed, and how Culture could play a role in intervention adherence or acceptance.

 

According to (Skolnik & Riegelman, 2020), Culture affects how individuals think and feel, including illness and disease. Cultural traditions, beliefs, practices, and rituals can often increase or diminish the risk of individuals being visible to pathogens, affecting the transmission relationships of diseases. Sensitivity to cultural factors correlated with controlling infectious and parasitic diseases has intensified in the past 20 years.

 Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a crucial, serious illness spread to people from wild animals; it extends in the human population through human-to-human transmission via direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people or surfaces contaminated with these fluids. People continue contagious if their blood and body fluids, as well as semen and breast milk, have the virus. The typical EVD case mortality rate is about 50%, but case mortality rates have fluctuated from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks. Culture is associated to Ebola outbreaks in several distinctive ways, involving burial practices, caregiving practices, and societal stigma. A better understanding of the link between these cultural factors and Ebola virus disease has brought to light how Ebola is transmitted and allotted for more effective disease control interventions. Burial rituals are the most significant and considered cultural practice related to Ebola. 60% of the cases in the 2014 outbreak in Guinea were associated with burial practices reported by (Skolnik & Riegelman, 2020). Probability of Ebola spread after a patient is dead because the remains and bodily fluids of the deceased patients remain infectious many days after death. Misinformation can result in families concealing relatives and friends contaminated with Ebola to avert being eschewed by their communities. Also on an international level, stigma can ensue from paranoia and fear of the disease, delaying with response attempts and humanitarian aid. Some countries have imposed strict travel restrictions, travel bans, or necessary quarantines for individuals upon return. According (Skolnik & Riegelman, 2020), in November 2014, the UN called on the global society to understand the roots of this stigma and address these roots to foster solidarity or unity in action.

 Cultural traditions are often described as barriers to affecting an epidemic. The first sociocultural analysis of Ebola, conducted in 2003, concluded that although some cultural factors such as burial methods can add to an outbreak at first, many in-place cultural belief systems or practices can be used to manage outbreaks. Culture is a vital determinant of health in many patterns. It connects to people’s health behaviors, experiences of illness, the degree to which they use health services, and the forms of medicine habitually practiced. Models of how behaviors can change are available, including the Health Belief Model, the Diffusion of Innovations model, and the Stages of Change model. To nurture behavior change, of course, requires a good knowledge of the behaviors that are taking place, how they relate to health, the fundamental motivation, and the likely reaction to several approaches to change them.

 

Skolnik, R. L., & Riegelman, R. K. (2020). Global health 101. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

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