Health is one of the key pillars of development in any country in the world. As a matter of fact, all developed and rapidly developing nations are known to incorporate health as one of the key pillars in their development blue prints. Indeed, a healthy nation is always a growing and successful one too. Global health is defined as the study that encompasses health issues affecting the entire world as a whole. It resulted upon the merging of international and tropical health. From this definition, it is clear that global health is not the effort of a particular country, but rather a collective one that calls upon active participation of all the nations.
The burden of disease is the impact that it has on all aspects of a nation or the entire globe. Sufficing to note, the effects of diseases are not just felt by the patients, but also by their families, communities, countries and the world as a whole. For instance, infectious diseases can spread to other members of a community calling in the intervention of the government through provision of medicine and medical personnel, surveillance and epidemiological studies to prevent increase in incidence and mortality.
In the case of global pandemics such as viral outbreaks which are highly infectious, global health organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) will have to be called in to avert a health crisis. In this regard, burden of a disease is the entire impact that it has; both financial and non-financial. It is the gap in all aspects of a country or the entire world between a healthy people and an ailing people. Global disease burden are the costs and efforts that are directed towards ensuring and maintaining the citizens of the world in a healthy state. It takes into consideration the prevalence, incidence, morbidity and mortality rates as well as disability outcomes.
The World Health Organization defines the determinants of health as factors which influence health outcomes. The determinants of health can be biological, environmental, social, economic or individual behaviors. The purpose of this paper will be to analyze how the social determinants of health influence the burden of disease in global health.
Social determinants of health encompass inter alia the levels of income, availability of stable housing, availability of health care and access to quality education. They undoubtedly influence the burden of disease. In 2005, the World Health Organization formulated the Commission of Social Determinants of Health over concerns that there were many differences in health outcomes between countries. The Commission released in 2008 three principles of action:
- Improving living conditions
- Tackling inequitable distribution of power and resources
- Measuring and fathoming the conundrum and assessing the impact of action.
A society with a sham in the name of a health system will undoubtedly have a high burden of disease for instance in low income countries, the average life expectancy in these countries is 48 years and in addition there is a high level of infant mortality thus there is a direct correlation between a health system of a country and the burden of disease.
The level and quality of education of a populace also affects the burden of disease especially when infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS are concerned since it is only by education that preventive measures can be propagated. Likewise, the level of poverty, housing and nutrition also influences the burden of disease because some ailments are actually nutrition based or even stress related.
Some of the future trends in global health are emerging diseases and global health funding. The outbreak of Ebola in 2015 in West Africa was one of the many emerging diseases that found many nations unable to combat the spread of Ebola. It unearthed the ineffective health system of many West African nations and it sent a message to the world on the need to cooperate and assist each other to combat ailments that threaten human existence.
The other pertinent issue is global funding towards global health system. There is need for stakeholders such as the United Nations and donors such as the strongest eight economies of the world to continue funding research towards combating ailments such as HIV/AIDS and also to assist the low and middle income countries to improve their health care systems and also respond to emergencies when they arise (Moss, 2011). There is need to create an integrated global health system that coordinates all the efforts towards realizing a healthy world. Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals are a United Nations initiative that was established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000. There are eight millennium development goals that have a deadline of 2015, the year in which they ought to have been achieved. Their purpose was to eradicate extreme poverty and uplift the living standards of the human race. The millennium development goals that are inclined towards global health are towards the eradication of hunger, child mortality, maternal health, eradication of HIV/AIDS and other ailments. The millennium goals are interrelated for instance; the goal of environmental sustainability is correlated to eradication of child mortality (Millenium Project, 2006).
On September 25th 2015, countries adopted a set of goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of the agenda titled Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This was an extension of the millennium development goals that has a deadline of the year 2030 (United Nations, 2015). It was also brought up following concerns by corporate institutions and international organizations of being ignored by agencies under the United Nations Development Group.
There are 17 sustainable development goals and associated 169 targets. The first sustainable development goal is ending poverty in all its forms from the face of the earth. It is important at this point to realize that poverty is singlehandedly one of the main causes of propagation of infectious disease. Therefore, success in global health cannot be achieved without addressing the issue of poverty. On a positive note, the extreme poverty rate has been halved since 1990. Despite this tremendous progress, 836 million people still live in poverty.
At least one person in five persons in the developing world lives on less than $1.25 daily (United Nations, 2015). It is the target of the United Nations that by 2030, there shall be no human being living on less than $1.25 daily. It is also a target that by 2030, the poor shall have resilience to climate related disasters and other socio-economic disasters (United Nations, 2015).
The life expectancy of Mexico men has fallen due to drug violence in the second decade of the third millennium. The leading causes for this according to a blog by the name of stat is homicide, self-inflicted injuries and HIV and AIDS. The life expectancy age according to Hiram, an assistant professor in UCLA declined from 75 years to 72 years (Samuel, 2016). Once again, the social determinants of health lead to the burden of disease in Mexico.
