Unit 1 A Geography AS AQA - Health issues

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  • Created by: Connie1.
  • Created on: 01-04-13 10:30

What is good health?

Good health is being able to function in an efficient and productive way. It involves good functioning of both mind and body. Bad health is sometimes referred to as morbidity. 

Individuals are responsible for their own health and their families health. However the government is responsible for supporting the individuals needs: 

- Making good decisions about their heath and welfare 

- Having access to the best possible facilities to receive health care 

- Having support in maintaining good health as well as trying to improve bad health 

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The link between individual health and public heal

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The government has to find a way to change public attitudes to health so it must consider individual attitudes to to their health and lifestyles. They enable (put policies in place), engage (get people thinking), exemplify (show how its done) and encourage/enforce (legislate to change the behaviour of individuals or organisations)

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Infectious disease: HIV/AIDs

In Africa 32% of all people live with HIV, 346,000 die per year of AIDs. Several factors have helped to spread it: 

- Lack of education about sex and hygiene 

- Problems of distributing condoms, of affording them and of overcoming reluctance among men who use them 

- Most men are not monogomus with their partners, they generally have 4 to 5 women at any time 

-  Attitudes to women - women are not meant to speak out about anything so they cannot ask there partners to put a condom on

- Traditions of older men initiating young girls into sex 

- Not many people are getting tested and there aren't many facilities affordable were they can go to get tested 

- Also not a lot of their donated blood is not screened - passed on through that

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Infectious disease: HIV/AIDs

In Africa many people die from them due to: 

- the lack of ARVs at affordable prices - 90% of people could have been saved had they had access to ARVs

- the late onset of treatment, even when it is available, because people are reluctant to be tested 

- some of the people dieing are poor so they lack the resistance against opportunistic infections that often result when the immune system is damaged by the HIV virus 

- the poor living conditions of the people, which make them more vulnerable to tuberculosis infection often principal cause of death for people who are HIV-positive 

- some people dont know they are infected until the end so are beyond help 

- for a while the African government didn't believe that HIV lead to AIDs so they did little about it this which will have caused many deaths

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Infectious disease: HIV/AIDs

In England the economic effects are not as great as they are in Sub Saharan Africa:  

- £18,000 per treatment - vares depending upon stage the patient is at when diagnosed, the type of treatment and number of drugs taken 

- Funding cuts are affecting patients because as in cities such as London they are switching drugs to save £9 million however those drugs are linked to heart disease. Also 13% oh HIV clinicians in the study had decided to prescribe specific HIV drugs therefore offered drugs based on cost not suitability. Also it could become increasingly difficult for people who have become resistant to certain ARVs to change their regime 

- If you catch teh HIV virus early enough then you need less ARVs so there is less money spent. 

In Africa many people die from them due to: 

- the lack of ARVs at affordable prices - 90% of people could have been saved had they had access to ARV's

- the late onset of treatment, even when it is available, because people are reluctant to be tested 

- some of the people dieing are poor so they lack the resistance against opportunistic infections that often result when the immune system is damaged by the HIV virus 

- the poor livng conditions of the people, which make them more vulnerable to tuberculosis infection often principal cause of death for people who are HIV-posistive 

- some people dont know they are infected until the end so are beyond help 

- for a while the African government didnt believe that HIV lead to AIDs so they did little about it this which will have caused many deaths

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Infectious disease: HIV/AIDs

HIV/AIDs is particularly damaging to the economies of countries in southern Africa because: 

- it strikes mature adults who are at the working age, so there contribution to the economy can be lost 

- it strikes all types of people, not just the poor and uneducated, this means that it can often be a waste in investing into education and training 

- many children are left orphaned and unable to continue there education, this reduces the value of workforce as they will not have the correct qualifications to do most jobs

- the cost of treatment and/or palliative care are huge in relation to the health-care budgets of poor countries

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Key words - Infectious disease

Health - the overall condition of persons health at any given time in regard to soundness of body or mind and freedom from disease or abnormailty 

Public health - the aspect of medical activity directed towards improving the health of the whole community. It refers to the health of the whole population rather than just an individual 

Morbidity - the state of being ill or diseased that damages health and quality of life

Mortality - death 

ARVS - designed to protect the immune system against the effects of  HIV

Opportunistic disease - illnesses that strike people people whos immune system is damaged

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Non-communicable disease: Obesity

Diseases of affluence generally include type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity, some forms of cancer, alcoholism, depression and possibly a range of other psychiatric illnesses. 

Obesity causes other non communicable illnesses such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and depression. 

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Non-communicable disease: Obesity

Obesity is an affluence disease

Factors that affect obesity are: 

- increased of the car 

- less strenuous exercise

- easy accesibilty to large amounts of low-cost fatty and sugary foods 

- prolonged periods of inactivity 

- greater use of tobacco and alchol

- longer lifespans because of  reduced exposure to infections and greater use of anti biotics and vaccines

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