Essay Sample on Achieving Good Health: Essential for All Nations

Introduction

The Health and well-being of a person are essential, regardless of wherever one may be staying. Good health is promoted by dealing with all health concerns appropriately. Without appropriate interventions in place, it would be impossible to deal with major health issues impacting certain kinds of people or even the whole population in a country. Every country in the world has to deal with different kinds of diseases. Some diseases have a serious effect on the people of the country, while others may not pose a serious threat to the population. The three major infections in Botswana include HIV, Tuberculosis (TB), and stroke. This paper will discuss these three types of infections in Botswana, compare it to the United States (US), and provide interventions that can reduce the spread and hence the impact of the diseases.

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Description of Three Health Issues (HIV/AIDS, TB, and Stroke)

HIV/AIDS impacts everyone regardless of social status, age, or gender as long as one is active. It mainly affects anyone in Botswana who is sexually active. Those who engage in careless sexual behavior are at a higher risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, but this does not mean that not having many partners is a guarantee that one would not be infected with HIV/AIDS. Therefore, as long as one is sexually active, he or she can be infected with HIV/AIDS. According to Stoneburner et al. (2015), HIV/AIDS accounts for 35% of all infections in Botswana. TB is an airborne disease, and that means it can be transmitted from one person to another through the air. All people in Botswana can be infected by TB as long as they are exposed to the virus. As per the 2019 health statistics, TB accounts for 5% of all the infections in Botswana (Mupfumi et al., 2019). The last major infection that has continued to cause havoc in Botswana is stroke. The risk factors for stroke include intake of too much alcohol, foods high in fats, diabetes, health disorders, and having stress and depression. Therefore, stroke is a kind of behavioral disease that people eat and drink as well as the way people live determines whether a person will suffer the infection. This means that anyone can be impacted by a stroke as long as they do not avoid its risk factors. According to Johnson et al. (2019), stroke accounts for 5% of all the infections in Botswana, which means that it is a serious health issue in the country.

The first case of HIV/AIDS in Botswana was reported in 1985. HIV is just a virus, and since the origin of the first person diagnosed with HIV/AIDS was not revealed, it is difficult to tell where the disease originated. Like HIV/AIDS, it is also difficult to tell where the TB originated from in Botswana. However, since bacteria cause it and then spread to other people, it may have brought by immigrants from other nations as the bacteria (Mycobacterium) more than 150 million years ago (Mogashoa et al., 2019). Stroke is usually caused by people's behavior such as eating habits, having stress and depression, smoking cigarettes, having certain health conditions like diabetes and obesity, and excess intake of alcohol. Also, since it is non-communicable, the origin of the stroke can be said to be from people in Botswana, engaging in risk behaviors and unhealthy eating habits that cause the disease.

The three diseases (HIV/AIDS, TB, and stroke) are important in Botswana. Botswana is experiencing one of the worst HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world. According to Stoneburner et al. (2015), the country's prevalence rate of the sexually active population (15 years and above) is 24.5%. Similarly, TB and stroke have also been increasing at alarmingly higher rates in the country than any other infection. The three diseases also combine to have the highest death rates in the country. As a result, more and more resources are being channeled to the health care system in the country to help treat TB and stroke and provide medications to HIV/AIDS victims who continue to grow every year since 1985. Therefore, the three diseases have continued to threaten Botswana's developmental projects and gains since it gained independence in 1966 (Stoneburner et al., 2015). The three diseases have affected the country's political stability, life expectancy, and economic growth, which are the main pillars that every country is built on. There has been the establishment of more education and healthcare facilities to health in treatment and the prevention of the three types of the disease. Since HIV/AIDS, TB and stroke have impacted the main pillars of the country's development, led to spending of enormous resources, and causing thousands of deaths every year, they are the most important health issues that the country have to continue dealing with, especially to their mortality, and infection rate. This is the only way to improve people’s quality of life and increase their life expectancy.

Every health problem in a country needs to be addressed, whether affecting a certain group of people or affecting the whole population. As for the three diseases under discussion, they are major health issues in Botswana, and thus, failure to address them will have a calamitous impact on the people and the country as a whole. Not addressing the three diseases will first result in reduced life expectancy as people will receive poor health care from the health systems. There will also be increased infections as the people in the country will lack awareness of how to avoid contracting such diseases. The recovery rate of those infected will also be slow, and that means for communicable diseases like TB will be passed to more people increasing the infection rate as the existing patients have not been treated. Therefore, it is really important to address the three diseases in Botswana to avoid such negative impacts.

The social determinants of health are a set of economic, social, and environmental factors that determine people's health. The social determinants of health play a key role in the spread of the three diseases and the ability of the infected people to seek care, support, and treatment (Ojo et al., 2019). The three social determinants of health of the three diseases in Botswana include high poverty levels, lack of adequate social support, and lack of awareness. High poverty levels in some parts of the country have increased the infection rate and the inability of people to seek care. For instance, poverty in the country has led to some partners in relationships to become powerless, and this has reduced their ability to protect themselves from HIV. Poverty has also led to increased prostitution in Botswana, and this is one of the main contributors to increased infection rates in the country. Due to high poverty levels, people in Botswana live in concentrated areas, which has increased the spread of TB (Ojo et al., 2019). Stroke is caused by the kind of foods that people eat and other factors. However, poor diet resulting from high poverty levels is the second main cause of stroke. Lack of enough support and lack of awareness of the three diseases has also led to increased infection as people do not know what they should do to avoid them. Lack of social support systems has made those infected unable to recover or live a normal life.

Comparison of HIV/AIDS, TB and Stroke

The three diseases are still a health issue in the US. They usually impact all people as long as they are exposed to each disease's risk factors. However, unlike Botswana, these three diseases are not a big problem in the US due to many health facilities, support systems, and increased awareness of the infections. In the United States, there is increased awareness, low poverty levels, and people lead healthier lives in terms of the food they eat.

The similarity of the three diseases in both Botswana and the US is that they affect all the people without excluding certain gender or race. The difference between the three diseases between Botswana and the US can be seen in terms of its prevalence. The three diseases are more prevalent in Botswana than in the United States.

The three social determinants of health of the three diseases discussed include ignorance, income inequality, and medically underserved areas are the main determinants of the three diseases in the US (Ojo et al., 2019). Despite the awareness that has been created about the three diseases, people in the US continue to engage in risky behaviors such as taking excess alcohol and eating junky foods which cause stroke and other health complications that lead to stroke, some people continue to live in concentrated areas which increases the probability of spreading TB, and other are engaging in promiscuous behavior which leads to increased risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. Income inequality resulting from higher earners and low earners in the society have also contributed to the increased health issues in the US as some people cannot afford medical bills and other supportive care services like counseling. Some areas are also medically underserved, which makes people with certain health issues struggle when trying to access health care and other support systems.

Interventions

The two interventions that can improve health by addressing the three diseases in Botswana and the US are education and ensuring that every part of the country is medically served. Many infections and deaths caused by the three diseases result from inadequate awareness of the public about the diseases. There is need for more education programs to be created in both US and Botswana to create awareness about the three diseases in terms of how they are spread, how to avoid contracting the diseases, how to manage the diseases if one is infected and most importantly, how to live with those infected. By creating awareness, there will be a reduced infection rate and better health, which will improve the country's life expectancy. Dealing with the three infections in Botswana will need well-established health systems in every part of the country. In many areas in Botswana, the health systems are not up to standard, and therefore, they will need to be improved so that they can effectively deal with the three diseases. In the US, more health systems also need to be established in areas that are medically underserved and help people manage health issues. As a result, the two interventions would not differ from those applied in Botswana.

The social determinants of health in the US and Botswana are connected to both the health issues and the two proposed interventions. Poverty levels lack awareness, ignorance, and lack of social support (Ojo et al., 2019). The creation of awareness about the diseases and establishing more health facilities would improve people's health care as it is through the lack of awareness and inadequate health care systems that there have been increased infections of the three diseases in Botswana. Therefore, if the two interventions are implemented, people will not have to worry anymore as they will address all the problems associated with the three health issues.

Conclusion

The impact of the disease in a country usually depends on the number of people infected, and the kind of care that would be needed, including treatment and prevention measures. Botswana is a country located in African. Africans have all kinds of infections, with some of them not even in the European and Asian countries. Therefore, when looking at the kind of infections in Botswana, there is a need to look at those which have major impacts on the people in the country and propose interventions that would promote health by dealing with the infections.

References

Johnson, C. O., Nguyen, M., Roth, G. A., Nichols, E., Alam, T., Abate, D. & Adebayo, O. M. (2019). Global, regional.