3.1 Income, poverty and death
Despite the fact that disease patterns are becoming similar across the globe, currently there are still differences between the rich and poor countries. Take at look at the infographic below, summarising data from the World Health Organisation [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .
In high-income countries: seven in every 10 deaths are among people aged 70 years and older. People predominantly die of chronic diseases: cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic obstructive lung disease or diabetes. Lower respiratory infections (pneumonia, asthma, bronchitis etc) remain the only leading infectious cause of death. Only one in every 100 deaths is among children under 15 years.
In low-income countries: People predominantly die of infectious diseases: lower respiratory infections, HIV/AIDS, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria and tuberculosis collectively account for almost one third of all deaths in these countries. Complications of childbirth due to prematurity, and birth asphyxia and birth trauma are among the leading causes of death, claiming the lives of many new-borns and infants. In addition nearly four in every 10 deaths are among children under 15 years, and only two in every 10 deaths are among people aged 70 years and older.
Why is this? Why do we see these very different trends? Unicef state multiple causes, the first set relate to an inability to fight infection through lack of immunisation, poor diet (in particular Vitamin A) and the second is living in circumstances where people encounter thriving disease causing organisms, for example lack of sanitation and overcrowded living conditions.
Activity 3.1
In low income countries infant and maternal deaths are the two major cause of deaths.
Here are some figures about infant mortality in 2012 from a report by Save the Children:
- 1 million babies died on the day they were born
- 2.9 million died in in their first 28 days
- 6.6 million died before their fifth birthday, most from preventable causes.
This number has almost been halved since 1990, but still means that 18,000 children died every day in 2012.
You can find out more by reading the Save the Children Report ‘Ending Newborn Deaths’. After you have completed the reading, carry out the following activity 3.1, shown below.
Note the key points from the Save Our Children report.
In the next section we will discuss the challenges of child mortality. From your reading of the report what would you consider to be the key global challenges? Take a note of your ideas now in your Reflective log.
Discussion
Some points to consider:
- Equality is when something is distributed equally, irrespective of need.
- Equity is when something is distributed according to NEED. This has a relation to the idea of justice.
From reading this text, can it be said that the prime challenge of global health is inequality?
3 Towards the homogenisation of global death