Paper Example on Health Issues In India

Introduction

The ability to live a healthy life is among the key determinants of human development. For a nation to achieve efficient healthcare, it has to have available healthcare services at an accessible distance for the citizens to adequately and fully utilize healthcare services. India is one of the nations that face substantial challenges in healthcare because it has been for a long time unable to cater for the health needs of the underprivileged members of the society, especially those living in the rural areas. It does not matter how much progress has been achieved in the urban areas. As long as essential healthcare services are still inaccessible in the rural areas, the overall human development in India will remain to decelerate. There is no doubt that India has made significant progress in healthcare enhancement, but the accessibility of healthcare to unprivileged members of the society has remained a critical issue.

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One of the leading health issues identified in India is the rate at which HIV/AIDS has been spreading. According to research, HIV/AIDS has been spreading rapidly since it was discovered in 1986 such that by 2011, the government confirmed that a total of 2.40 Indians had contracted the disease. According to the government, children below 15 years account for 3.5% of the total infections in 2011, people between 15 and 50 years account for 83% of the total infections, with 50% of them being women (Nadkarni & Rego, 2016). Adults above 50 years account for 13%. From this analysis, it is clear that the youths are the most affected by the epidemic and based on India's National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), most HIV infections occur through unprotected sex (Nadkarni & Rego, 2016). Youths comprise of vulnerable individuals who indulge in unprotected sex every now and then, and that explains the high percentage.

The spread of HIV/AIDS is connected to individual human behavior thus any attempt to control its range must consider the complex social, cultural and economic factors in which the disease is rooted. A significant portion of India's population is occupied by immigrants thus the poor housing services in urban areas force migrant laborers, who are mainly youths between 18 and 35 years, to stay away from their families (Nadkarni & Rego, 2016). Since most of them are illiterate, they are exposed to risky behavior including drug and substance abuse which in turn leads to the vulnerability of exposure to unprotected sex.

Gender inequality is also a primary concern in India which make women more vulnerable. Besides, commercial sex is a significant economic activity among the youths in India, and it is a fundamental source of HIV infection. Although retail sex workers wish to adopt safe sex practices, their clients almost always object thus increasing the spread rate (Vakil 2018). The government has started several interventions to promote safe sex among CSWs, but the spread of HIV has remained adamant because most clients do not follow instructions. Promoters of safe sex should educate even the clients to reduce cases of unprotected sex.

The other health issue identified in India is the gastrointestinal disorder, which refers to digestive system associated disorders. Improper sanitation and hygiene mainly cause this health issue. According to a research by Vakil (2018), 70% of people living in the rural areas contract different digestive diseases every year and only 40% of people living in the urban regions contract such diseases. Therefore, the most affected population is in the rural areas, which can be explained by the poor sanitation and hygiene in the rural areas due to the disparity of resources. Social factors affecting the affected population include poor nutrition and poverty which lead to inadequate diet. For instance, peptic ulcers are one of the central digestive disorders in India, and protein and vitamin A deficiency mainly causes it (Vakil, 2018). Most people in the rural areas cannot afford a balanced diet that contains all these nutrients thus they suffer from peptic ulcers.

On the other hand, most people in the rural areas have similar eating habits because of poverty. For instance, the staple food for people living in the rural coastal regions is rice while those on the west eat rice with a tone of spices. Therefore, they mostly eat an unbalanced diet that could stir digestive problems (Vakil, 2018). It is expensive to treat some digestive diseases like ulcers and intestinal parasites thus most people do not go to the hospital when they find out they are sick. The government has been trying to combat the living standards in the rural areas that cause digestive disorders but very little has been accomplished up to now. The best intervention would be to change the eating culture of these people by eating a balanced diet.

Another health issue in India is respiratory disorders, and they stem from a variety of air pollution causes. The most prevalent respiratory diseases in India include but not limited to asthma, bronchitis, and tuberculosis. Specific research enrolling 1500 patients in India shows that 63% of patients between 18 and 45 years had more than one respiratory disorder and 45% of them were male (Pednekar, Vasa, Narake, Sinha & Gupta, 2016). 35% of them were current smokers, and 25% reported that they had smoked before. Therefore, males between 18 and 45 years were the most affected portion of the population. I believe that most men indulge in smoking between the said age bracket thus they are exposed to the risk of contracting respiratory diseases more than their female counterparts. It is essential to assess the impact that economic, cultural and social factors have on the said population to be able to identify effective interventions for the diseases.

Conclusion

The growing prevalence of the disease among young males is due to rapid industrialization, urbanization, and adoption of the western lifestyle. Smoking in India is proving that young smokers have adopted the culture of the west. Also, social factors such as tobacco abuse and lack of parental support have contributed to the spread of respiratory diseases among this group (Pednekar, Vasa, Narake, Sinha & Gupta, 2016). Besides, the youth are mostly unemployed, or they have poorly paying jobs thus once they have the condition they acquire a poor quality of care. Also, the socioeconomic load associated with respiratory disorders contribute to healthcare system costs directly, which in turn adds a significant cost burden to patients. Several organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO) have developed instruments to evaluate respiratory disease prevalence among tobacco smokers in specific areas to come up with ways to combat its use. The government can start an anti-tobacco policy in India to minimize the number of respiratory disorder cases reported as an intervention measure.

References

Nadkarni, V. V., & Rego, A. (2016). HIV/AIDS in India. Social work in a global context: Issues and challenges, 170-188.

Pednekar, M. S., Vasa, J., Narake, S. S., Sinha, D. N., & Gupta, P. C. (2016). Tobacco and Alcohol Associated Mortality among Men by Socio-economic Status in India. Epidemiol Open J, 1(1), 2-15.

Vakil. (2018). THE PATTERN OF CERTAIN GASTRO-INTESTINAL DISEASES IN INDIA[Ebook]. Retrieved from http://file:///C:/Users/maureen/Downloads/Documents/614.full_1.pdf