Paper Example on DALYs: Measuring Poor Health, Disabilities, and Premature Death in Nigeria & Zambia

Introduction

Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) is a quota of the overall ailments weight expressed numerically in terms of the number of years causes by poor health, disabilities and or premature death. It is also a quantifiable measure of premature impermanence and disabilities in a population. The DALYs in both Nigeria and Zambia have the following causes; malaria, HIV/AIDS, and infections in the respiratory system. This may subsequently lead to a reduction in life expectancy, child mortality and high risks of death. Over a period of twenty seven years, i.e. from 1990-2017, statistics forecasted that the life expectancy would increase by a good margin. After the census, this was confirmed (Feigin, et al, 249). The life expectancy in Nigeria escalated tremendously as at end 2017. Surveillance of children under the age of 5 is usually done to determine the child mortality rates. The child mortality rate reduced on both countries in toddlers under the age of five and infants under the age of one. The analysts did a report on the main causes of death in the two countries between the years 2007 and 2017. In Nigeria, the main reason for death was malarial infections in the population while the least predominant one was strokes. However, in 2017, the main was infections in the lower respiratory system and the least was liver cirrhosis. Zambia on the other hand, had HIV/AIDS as the dominant ailment and heart diseases as the recessive one. Other causes of death included tuberculosis, meningitis, diarrheal infections, among many others.

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Challenges impacting the health of refugee population in Nigeria

The main cause of the occurrence of refugees in Nigeria is the Boko Haram terrorist group. The crisis entered its sixth year in 2019. Thereafter, these refugees have faced multiple challenges in the camps. Harsh climatic conditions is a major problem. These conditions may include; very hot weather and or rainy seasons. These climatic conditions makes living in the camps almost unbearable. They bring about diseases which the refugees cannot afford to treat and may interfere with the little farming they try to do for food purposes. Recurrent epidemics is another. The main one is cholera. The outbreak of cholera in refugee camps in Nigeria is a pandemic (Naghavi, et al, 1157). This is because they have no access to clean water or food hence the outbreak cannot be eradicated easily. Refugees also have a scarce access to the basic services such as enough food, water for domestic purposes, and proper healthcare services. This makes the living even more unbearable and the suffering and deaths to increase tenfold. The government has been trying in the provision of these services but the numbers are just too many. Poor infrastructure brings about shelter problems in the camps. Most of the time, the shelters are usually made of plastic tents or tents made of paper bags, etc. These dwellings are not sufficient enough to enable the security of the refugees during harsh climates or from robbers and attackers. This may sometimes lead to rape cases among women and female children. There is also the major case of chronic poverty in the region. Many of the refugees cannot afford the basic living standards in the country.

Health challenges shared and differentiated between Nigeria and Zambia

In many African countries, the challenges affecting health are more so similar, Nigeria and Zambia are no different. The challenges they face that are similar consist of; poor hygienic behaviors, poor health infrastructure, lack of efficient health workers and service providers, limited medical supplies, high poverty levels, among others. These challenges are mainly caused by the ignorance of the government in general. The governments of both countries do not properly allocate enough funds into the health sector (Theo, et al, 1222). Therefore, the medical practitioners are forced to divide these peanut funds among the various sectors in the health department. They are forced to build hospitals and healthcare facilities that are inefficient, employ few and or incompetent personnel so that they can pay less salaries, and lastly, fewer medical supplies. It is therefore not a surprise that both Nigeria and Zambia are among the countries whose medical department is on strikes for the most part of the year claiming better working conditions among the other problems they face.

The unique challenge that Nigeria faces is corruption. Corruption is a prevalent challenge in most countries and it results in the backward growth of a country's economic sector. The main form of corruption in the country is bribery. The competence and integrity of the healthcare workers and service providers is greatly undermined due to corruption thereby affecting the health sector overall. On the other hand, the unique challenge in Zambia is the cultural and religious beliefs. These beliefs may hinder the proper care and treatment of patients since some practices are considered taboos. Surgeries, for example, often include the invasion of an individual's privacy and this may not sit well with some backward cultural beliefs.

References

Naghavi, Mohsen, et al. "Global, regional, and national age-sex specific mortality for 264 causes of death, 1980-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016." The Lancet 390.10100 (2017): 1151-1210.

Vos, Theo, et al. "Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 328 diseases and injuries for 195 countries, 1990-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016." The Lancet 390.10100 (2017): 1211-1259.

Feigin, Valery L., et al. "Global and regional burden of stroke during 1990-2010: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010." The Lancet 383.9913 (2014): 245-255.