Research #2

Source:Third World Network
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/twr131a.htm

World Food Programme
http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats


My Topic:
Developing country's health problem


 What I hope to learn from this source:
I want to find facts that can show that developing countries' health problems are different from developed countries' problems, and think about solutions for developing-countries' health problems.


Notes:

1. ABOUT 14 million people die each year from infectious diseases, many of which are preventable or treatable, such as acute respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria and tuberculosis.(45% of deaths in Africa and South-East Asia)
2. This health crisis is caused by several interlinked factors - poverty, and lack of access to health services, water and sanitation being some of them./ However, a vital factor is the supply of effective and affordable medicines and people’s access to such medicines and treatments.
3.  In industrialised countries, AIDS deaths have been dramatically reduced partly because of the availability of life-saving medicines.
4. AIDS medicine is estimated at US$10,000-15,000 (the Guardian, 12 February 2001).  This price level puts such treatment out of reach of most people in the developing world, where 95% of the people with HIV are from.
5. Companies owning or controlling patents on the medicines have been able to block competition from other firms and other products. Prices of patented medicines are very much linked to the monopolies enjoyed by pharmaceutical companies, protected and maintained by patent rights.
6. The vast majority of the world's hungry people live in developing countries, where 13.5 percent of the population is undernourished.
7. Asia is the continent with the most hungry people - two thirds of the total. 
8.  Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest prevalence (percentage of population) of hunger. One person in four there is undernourished.
9. One out of six children -- roughly 100 million -- in developing countries is underweight. One in four of the world's children are stunted. In developing countries the proportion can rise to one in three.

 
 

Final Thoughts:

This informations shows that developing countries' mortality can decrease significantly if we provide efficient medicine to them. I will think about solutions that countries and organizations can make to solve this problem.