It is mostly the preventable diseases which lead to fatal maladies due to negligence that hold our lives in stake, reveals the 1994 WHO report
THE recently published 1996 The 1996
World Health Organization infectious
(WHO) report urges all the epidemics
countries to target health care
facilities as a primary governmental and international concern, particularly in the light of
an onslaught by various diseases plaguing our globe
today. According to the WHO
report, over the past 20 years,
at least 30 new diseases have
been scientifically recognised
the world over.
The increase of infectious
disease-related deaths are seen
to have a "crippling" effect on
the socioeconomic development of many nations.
Although many governments
seem to be blaming mother
nature alone, the WHO report reveals
that the spurt in these viruses are largely
human-induced. The report cites
international movements of peoples
due to wars and internal political turmoil, global travel and changes in
lifestyles as key contributors to the rise
in these diseases.
The HIV virus, which was unknown a
decade ago, today infects more than 20
million adults, and the figure may jump
to 40 million within five years. Hepatitis
B, c, and E are new strains which have
been identified in recent years, all three
having claimed 1.1 million lives last
year. In 1992, a completely new strain of
cholera called Vibrio cholerae 0139 surfaced in southeastern India, and has
since spread to other parts of India and
South East Asia.
The hantavirus infections, which
were first recognised in the us in 1993
(Down To Earth, Vol 4, No 20) have
since been detected in 20 American
states, with cases also reported from
Canada, Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. In 1995, the Ebola virus which was
unknown 20 years ago, caused a severe
outbreak in Zaire, in which 80 per cent
of the cases were fatal.
Hiroshi Nakajima, director-general
Of WHO remarked, "Infectious diseases
are attacking us on multiple fronts.
Together they represent the world's
leading cause of premature deaths." The
socioeconomic consequences of these
diseases are devastating. Nakajima
explained that many of the victims are
school-age children and working-age
adults, "the potential workforces of
tomorrow, and the actual workforces
of today".
The most disturbing realisation that
dawns from the report is that, several of
these 52 million deaths reported last
year could have been prevented. Of the
17 million deaths caused by infectious
diseases, nine million that perished were
children; they died of such preventable
maladies as diarrhoea and pneumonia
due to inadequate health care facilities.
Jayesh Shah, trustee for the Bombay-
based human rights magazine Human
Scape, stated that the lack of proper
health care implementation programme,
was a big - if not a bigger - human
rights problem than the much
politicised Kashmir issue. Shah
explained that of the 189
municipal dispensaries in
Bombay which received about
81 million cases last year,
approximately only Rs 3 was
cases earmarked for each patient.
This is of chilling significance if one considers the WHO
report's appeal to nations to
address their health problems
by using readily available and
existing "cost-effective" methods. Among these methods are
immunisation of children
against diseases like measles,
tuberculosis (TB), polio, and
hepatitis B. the health care cost
being us $14.50 (approximately Rs 536.50) per child.
The report also urges for
health education programmes
and standard procedures for
improved diagnosis of sexually transmitted diseases, the cost standing at us
$11.50 (approximately Rs 425.50) per
person.
Other recommendations are providing adequate and clean drinking
water, basic sanitation, and waste disposal to prevent polio, hepatitis, and
typhoid. In the case of India, the recent
Water pollution crisis in Bichhri (DTE,
Vol 4, No 23) is just the tip
of an iceberg. Despite these disturbing
statistics, Nakajima ruefully observes
that the international community and
many countries on their own, have
reduced investment in controlling diseases that cause "heavy economic and
human tolls."
The result could be an appalling
global health crisis, as several of these
11 small" infectious viruses are making a
comeback with vengeance. Cholera, malaria, and TB have together claimed
about 8.3 milhofi lives in 1995. The
recent outpour of literature like Lorry
Garrett's The Coming Plague, The
Viruses, and Our Stolen Future, highlight
the incompetence of the governments
due to their fatalistic attitude.
What is more alarming is that these
preventable infections often lead to
incurable fatal diseases. For instance,
550,000 of the new cases of stomach
cancer this year are attributable to a bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, which is
transmitted through food. The sexually
transmitted infection of the cervix with
human papilloma viruses have a very
high risk of developing cervical cancer.
Of the 529,000 cervical cancer cases
reported last year, 436,000 were caused
by this virus. Similarly, 82 per cent of
the world's total liver cancer cases are
attributable to hepatitis B and c viruses.
Nakajima states, "This complacency is
now costing millions of lives - lives
that we have the knowledge and the
means to save, yet we are allowing them
to trickle away through our fingers."
Fatal infections The 1996 WHO report specifically focusses on infectious diseases, many of which caused lethal epidemics during the year 1995 |
||
Disease | Location | Reported cases |
Dengue fever | Central and South America (14 countries) | 600,000 |
Cholera | South America, Africa and eastern Europe | 384,000 |
Yellow fever | The Americas (began in Peru in 1950) and western Africa (Liberia) | thousands of cases |
Ebola fever | Zaire | 316 (about 80% died) |
Diphtheria | Eastern Europe (began in the Russian Federation in 1990 and then spread to 15 countries) | 100,000 |
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