1 development and health health factors. 2 development and health causes of death, 2004 4

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DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH

HEALTH FACTORS

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Causes of death, 2004

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There are five main geographical factors that help to determine the state of health of an area or country.

CLIMATE

WATERSUPPLY

WEALTH

NUTRITION

REMOTENESS

Let us look at each factor in turn;-

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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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WATERSUPPLY

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. Why?

It is easier to pipe water in urban areas, and it gets to

more people per km.of pipe.

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WATERSUPPLY A foreign aid project to pipe

water to a town.

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WATERSUPPLY

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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WEALTH

The richer countries can afford the four basics of good health-

A balanced diet / clean water supplies / good housing / effective health care services.

Obviously, poorer countries can not afford these.

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NUTRITION

Nutritional problems come in two broad categories- Under- 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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One day’s food for this Ethiopian woman.

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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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There are different types of health problems that affect the people in a country. They include-

•WATER-BASED DISEASES

•WATER-BOURNE DISEASES

•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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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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WATER- RELATED DISEASES

These are where the organism which causes the disease lives in water for at least part of its life-cycle.

It can include;-

The mosquito that breeds in water and causes

MALARIA.

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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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DIET-RELATED DISEASES

MALNUTRITION-

Kwashiorkor 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 HEALTHMALNUTRITION (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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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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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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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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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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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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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 side-effects!

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.

1 development and health health factors. 2 development and health causes of death, 2004 4

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