Health and Development

Hunger and poverty claim 25000 lives every day

1 out of 4 children in developing countries are under weight, roughly 146 million 

60% of chronically hungry people are women 

every minute a child under 15 dies from aids related illness, and another another one becomes HIV positive 

MDG4- to reduce child mortality 

MDG5- to improve maternal health; to reduce maternal mortality by two thirds from 1990 to 2015 

MDG6- To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

The percentage of deliveries attented by skilled health care personnel has increased from 43 (1990) to 57 (2005) in developing countries. 

Communicable diseases- bacteria and viral diseases eg polio, diarrhoea and typhoid all air born diseaeses 

Insects- specific to hotter climates, involves insects eg malaria 

Physical contact- leprosy and AIDs

• lack of improvements in living conditions. In Europe 19th Century, sanitation, nutrition ect acconunted for more improvements to health than progress of curative medicine and even immunisation. 
• Water is often a key factor, WTO estimates 70% of Hospital beds in LEDCs are taken by people who are victims of waterborne diseases
• Air pollution, cities od the LEDs often directly affect the health of the population by damaging the enviriment with pollution

• Effectively, dependency theory argues that the conditions of health and illness in the developing countries have been imposed on them by Metropolis interference throughout colonialism and neo colonialism

PATRICIA BARTON 

• documents how colonial powers bought with them new diseases
• people in the LEDCs had no immunuty too resulting in many deaths 
• problem emphasized when imperial administrators imported slaves from around the world to make up the labour 
• this ensured disease from the americas, asia ect spread globally 
• Barton argues that faced with there apparent ineffctiveness, people lost faith in existing health care technologies
• already frowned upon as heathen by colonial powers, therefore they collapsed and left the poor without any indigenous health care systems

HAYTER 

• argues the evisction of people from there land and mass migration to urban slums has led to breakdown of communtites and feelings of social dislocation and alienation 
• this has manifested itself as a range of other health related side effects, inlcuding increased alcoholism, drug abuse and increased suicide rates

• in rich world, move towar diet containing more fat, refined and processed ingredients, meant that illnesses such as heart disease and cancer have alarmingly increased 
• western diseases heightened by irresponsable advertising by TNCs. coorporations make dishonest claims about the nutritional and health benefits of their products 
• 1970's Nestle accused of mismarketing powdered baby milk as healthier than breast milk 
• results in dependence on the TNC produce as mothers stop producing milk and are consequently forced to continue to buy the powdered version. 

Structural adjustment plans 

• implemented and stunt the health provison in the devoloping world 
• given loans on condition they cut back 
• therefore medical staff and infastructure needed are not produced so health care worsens 
• 1 doctor to 17000 in developing world

Importing of staff from developing world

• the rich import medical staff, poached from the developing world to quickly relieve shortages of staff 
• leaves the developing world with even less health care professionals 

Profitable drugs 

• firstly, research into new drugs for conditions such as malaria are less proitable than 'lifestyle drugs' 
• where drugs are available, their cost is often prohibitive 
• Pharmaceutical TNCs aggresively follow law suits so that cheaper generic versions are not copied, meaning you have to buy the expensive branded one, or go without. 

SUSAN GEORGE 

• how the other half dies, her book published in 1976
• she argues that the planet could easily feed its population and more. 
• she insists the problem is not climate change and food technology will not improve the problem. 
• George believes that the problem is that the world food supply is controlled by the wealthy elite (agribusiness) and that the poor have no say on the terms of trade that keep thm hungry. 
• Debt also creates poverty and the inability of the LEDCs to feed themselves 

Modernisation key point

• We must replace traditional health care with modern western knowledge and teachings

limitations 

• health care stoped improving in the mid 80s and started to fall again, centralised health care has a limited reach and only provided to densely populated urban areas
• rural dwellers may infact have a greter need for the health care. 

Green revolution and strengths 

• notable improvements across the third world are responsable to modernisation theory since 1950s
• strength to their approach is the potential scale of impact (innoculation programmes) 
• Borlaug created short stemmed disease resistent wheat varieties that excelled in converting fertiliser and water into high yields 
• Mexico, India and Pakistan 

• argue we must seek to improve existing health care sytems rather than replacing them with western alternatives 
• initiates aims to improve the skills and knowledges of local healers

Strengths 

• benefits from the trust of local people
• proven particularly succesful across a range of focal concerns, eg local healers enouraging those to go to doctors at early signs of HIV to reduce stigma in south africa 
• far less exclusive than more centralised forms

limitation 

• these models of health care are less effective and have a smaller impact

Schumacher

• small is beautiful 

Aids means loss of job and money and land wich means decline in food production, sanitation and food and watr for fsmily which means the become poorer and more ill and the bad sanitation spreads the illness (aids)