Transcript Health factors

DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
HEALTH FACTORS
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
Causes of
death, 2004
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
There are five main geographical factors that help
to determine the state of health of an area or
country.
REMOTENESS
CLIMATE
WATER
SUPPLY
NUTRITION
WEALTH
Let us look at each factor in turn;3
DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
CLIMATE
Areas that are hot and wet encourage the
spread of infectious diseases.
They provide the ideal breeding conditions for
the VECTOR- that is the host of the disease.
Areas that are dry cause water supplies to be
restricted and for people to congregate around
the few supplies that are available, increasing
the risk of contamination.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
WATER
SUPPLY
In LEDC’s, there are on average 50% of people
who lack access to adequate clean water supplies.
This figure increases dramatically in rural areas.
It is easier to pipe
water in urban
areas, and it gets
to more people per
km.of pipe.
Why?
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
WATER
SUPPLY
A foreign aid project to pipe water
to a town.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
WATER
SUPPLY
In rural areas wells
provide the water, and
they can run dry
easily.
It is often a long
distance to walk to get
to a well, and women
and children spend
much of their day
fetching water. This
can also have a bad
effect on their
physique.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
WEALTH
The richer countries can
afford the four basics of
good healthA balanced diet /
clean water supplies /
good housing / effective
health care services.
Obviously, poorer
countries can not afford
these.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
NUTRITION
Nutritional problems come in two broad categoriesUnder- and Mal- nutrition.
Under nutrition is not getting enough food of any
kind.This retards physical growth and limits human
potential. It is also called starvation!
Malnutrition is not getting a balanced diet. The
sufferer may not die of this, but has a limited
amount of energy to work, and is more prone to
other diseases.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
One day’s food for this Ethiopian woman.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
REMOTENESS
Areas that are difficult to get to due to being
mountainous or hard to traverse ( eg.deserts) or
those that are physically a long way from the rest
of the country, like Siberia, will of course get a
raw deal when it comes to getting help.
Getting there will be costly and add to the price of
the aid being delivered.
Supplies may take too long to get there or may be
intercepted on the route.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
There are different types of health problems that
affect the people in a country. They include•WATER-BASED DISEASES
•WATER-BOURNE DISEASES
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•WATER-RELATED DISEASES
•DIET-RELATED DISEASES
•BEHAVIOUR-RELATED PROBLEMS
These are not the only types, but they are the most
common.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
WATER-BASED DISEASES
These are spread by parasites living in the water
and infecting an intermediary host/vector that
gives us a disease. They can include;The freshwater snail infected by a fluke that
infects people and carries SCHISTOSOMIASIS
( bilharzia).
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
WATER- RELATED DISEASES
These are where the organism which causes the
disease lives in water for at least part of its lifecycle.
It can include;The mosquito that breeds in water and causes
MALARIA.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
WATER-BOURNE DISEASES
These are spread by people using
contaminated water;Lack of clean water for washing
bodies causing YAWS.
Contaminated water – often with
raw sewage- that allows bacteria
to infect people using it, like
CHOLERA or TYPHOID.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
DIET-RELATED DISEASES
MALNUTRITIONKwashiorkor is a disease linked to protein deficiency.
The result is that physical growth particularly in
children is retarded, hair may fall out, skin loses its
colour leading to social stigma, it may fall out
completely, and the stomach is greatly distended.
Another example is RICKETS, where the legs bow
outwards at the knees due to weak bones not taking
the weight properly. This is due to lack of vitamins C
and D.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
MALNUTRITION (cont.)
Skin lesions like scurvy occurs with a lack of fruit and
vegetables.
Fungal infections like ringworm are common due to lack
of vitamin A.
In MEDC’s, cancer, stroke, diabetes and heart disease
are major causes of death due to a poorly balanced diet
and poor lifestyle. Osteo-porosis is from a lack of
vitamin C in older people, especially women lacking
oestrogen.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
Malnutrition often happens when diets are based on
only one main food source- like rice- and lacks
variety supplied by nutritious foods.
Areas typical of this are the Indian sub-continent
and South-east Asia.
A significant proportion of the population are
unhealthy and unable to work for any length of
time.
They are susceptable to other simple diseases and
soon the whole economy suffers.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
BEHAVIOUR-RELATED PROBLEMS
People in the ‘North’ suffer more from
endogenous/degenerative diseases linked to
lifestyle, environment and technology.
Lack of exercise is an important cause of ill health
in MEDC areas, not releasing the stored energy we
eat. Too much of the wrong types of physical work
can create problems with joints, bones and muscles.
Drug abuse, including alcohol and tobacco, and
certain sexual behaviours can cause health
problems.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
Strokes are where the blood supply is reduced or
stopped to a part of the brain. Damage is caused
that can prevent parts of the body functioning
properly and it can be fatal.
Heart disease causes the muscles of the heart to
fail, or reduced blood flow to the heart because of
clogged arteries can cause the heart tissue to die.
Blood is then not pumped around the body, and you
die.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
Diabetes is where the body cannot deal with the
sugars in your food that should be stored to release
energy when needed. You can go into a diabetic
shock or collapse or die if the balance is badly
wrong.
Cancers are where the cells of the body keep
dividing and won’t stop, as they should. A tumour
grows and feeds off your blood supply, eventually
killing you. Bits of the tumour can break off and
travel to other parts of the body to grow there.
They are thought to be diet, lifestyle and/or
stress- induced.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
There is a virus that can be shared through the
transfer of bodily fluids. It is called HIV, and
destroys part of your immune defence system. If
you catch it, there is a chance it will develop into
full-blown AIDS, and then even an infection like
tuberculosis or another virus like measles can kill
you.
It is caught often by needle-sharing drug users,
through un-screened blood products being given in
clinics, or by having unprotected sex with a victim.
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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
Its strength can sometimes be reduced with a cocktail
of strong medical drugs, if given in the early years of
diagnosis. They usually have highly unpleasant sideeffects!
A sufferer may have the virus for many years without
knowing it, and the symptoms do not always appear
obvious.
Not everyone with HIV gets AIDS and dies.
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