Cholera in Africa!

The people in Ethiopia have been attacked by Cholera. This is a disease caused by drinking contaminated water and eating fish that are not cooked property which have the bacteria. When someone has cholera they will show these symptoms: diarrhea, vomiting, high fever, ramps, and dehydration. The person loses weigh everyday if they are diagnosed with cholera. If the person doesn’t get treatment as soon as possible cholera will kill that person in about three days and it is most likely due to dehydration. It is easily treated with fluids and antibiotics, and when someone can’t get the antibiotics he or she can drink a simple mixture of water and glucose to stop the dehydration which is like saving the life of that person since dehydration is mostly the cause of death when someone has cholera.

In Ethiopia more than 680 people have died and people suspect that it was because of cholera and it has also affected the neighboring countries. The Health Ministry has denied getting help from the UN because they don’t think it’s a big deal that this disease is increasing. The UN worries about it because the disease is spreading to other countries like Kenya and in Uganda more than a 1000 people have been infected by cholera, and seventeen people from Kenya have died because of cholera.

When a disease hits a place and the Health Ministry doesn't do anything about it early, the UN believes that it is very difficult to eliminate it. The Health Ministry of Ethiopia is not making it easy either, because they are still denying that it is cholera. They are saying that this is an acute watery diarrhea and they are not sharing the test with anybody else so that they can help them. This outbreak of cholera is not being addressed on the scale it needs to be targeted in order to have an impact, says Paul Herbert, head of the UN office for the co-ordination of humanitarian affairs in Ethiopia, but they can really convince the local officials so it’s hard for them to do anything without the permission of the local officials.

Cholera has attacked other countries in Southern Africa. In Namibia the health authority confirmed the outbreak of cholera on February 13th of this year when six people from the northern villages along the border with Angola were taken to the hospital very ill with cholera. Growing up in Burundi I’ve heard about Cholera and I don’t remember very well but I know that some people from the village that I grew up in were killed because of it. It was not very bad in my country because they tried to protect people as soon as possible but there were some places that they didn’t reach and those people lost their lives because they couldn’t afford the medicine. I remember people talking about cholera and that it was very severe in Angola.

According to the World Health Organization, cholera has killed more than 1,200 people in Angola over the past three years and 35,000 people are affected. Permanent secretary for the Ministry of Health and Social Service in Namibia Kalumbi Shangula said that five of six cases of cholera have been contracted in Angola. I know that when I was in Burundi people believed that, too. Shangula said: “It seems that the epicenter is situated in Angola spreading from there to Congo, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and now Namibia.” In Zambia they have registered 5,500 cases of cholera and in Congo 90 people died from cholera, with 2,700 others infected. Mozambique has 700 cases of cholera so far. The outbreak has been caused by the contaminated water from the Ruacana River from Angola, and with the floods that happend in the same month. Knowing that the people of Angola don’t have good water, some of them get it from the Ruacana River and it's not good water for a human being to drink. Shangula said the health officials have been distributing water treatment pills and have set up medical treatment centers in the area along the border so that they can try to prevent the two epidemics spreading. This is a good idea and it will help both Southern countries in Africa and other countries in Africa. If Ethiopia's local officials would do the same thing they would be able to protect their people from cholera.

Dengue Fever!

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is an organization that was established in 1902 as the world oldest’s public the health organization. The experts from this organization are working with health authority from Paraguay to help control dengue fever in the community. This has affected a lot of people in the communities and has been a concern around the nation and the neighboring countries like South America. Dengue fever is a disease caused by a virus transmitted by mosquitoes. It only takes one mosquito bite in order to get the disease, and it takes from three to fifteen days to start getting the symptoms of dengue. When you get dengue fever you will have a high fever, a rash, a headache, and severe muscle joint pain.

If you found out about it as soon as possible and go see the doctor you will get better in two to three days. They actually haven’t found the treatment of dengue fever, but they can give you medications to lower the fever, decrease the pain of muscle aches, and stop headaches. They would give you fluids through a needle in a vein to protect you from dehydration. Some people recover fully from dengue, but if you just had it for the first time you might feel weak and fatigued for a few weeks; sometimes people who had it before might develop the virus again. When you were infected by dengue fever your immune system keeps producing cells that will prevent your body from getting infected again for about a year. If severe hemorrhaging occurs it might be necessary to do blood transfusions.

The tropics and subtropics are the areas of high risk for dengue fever, places like the Caribbean and Puerto Rico. They have found the case of this disease in South Asia, too. In Thailand 31 people were killed because of dengue fever in 1998, and last year it killed three times that. People are scared of this disease in Thailand. I’ve learned that dengue fever is severe in Vietnam, too. More than 3, 880 people have been infected just this month, and about 39 people have died just this year.

The mosquitoes must be eliminated in order to prevent dengue fever. People have to eliminate any source of standing water, such as buckets and vases. It would help, too, if people who are already infected by dengue fever were placed in the mosquitoes nets so that the mosquitoes won’t bite them and go bite someone else.

The people in Paraguay have been warned that this year might be the dangerous year because of dengue fever. In the middle of January, Paraguay has declared an epidemiological alert to let people know that dengue has emerged. The first two deaths that were reported in January 20th were caused by dengue fever. The PAHO original advisor of dengue Dr. Josй Luis San Martнn said that they main goal for this year is to treat people who are affected so that they can prevent more deaths. This organization has sent a team of experts to Paraguay to start assisting people and providing technical help in medical treatment, social communication, and health services organization. Countries like Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia have stepped up to prevent dengue fever and take control it. Paraguay has taken this very seriously and their health authority has understood all the strategies they need to prevent dengue fever and they have the ability to respond to it if it increases in any way.

Dengue’s major outbreaks tend to be separated every period of five years, and it increases intensively every time. Dr. Martin said that this year it’s going to be very difficulty and it’s not going to take just the health sector but they will need the participation of every other sectors and the people. He said that the community efforts are the principle to preventing and decreasing outbreaks of dengue. If the people get together and work together, I believe that this will make a big difference in the society. I know that there’s no cure or vaccination for this disease, and all that people can do is try to protect their communities.

Obesity in the World!

Knowing that obesity is consided as the world's major health problem, I believe that people should be careful about it. It’s understandable that people don’t always have time to have a good meal every single day, but they should consider it at least. Here in America there’s a high rate of obesity because people eat more fast food than home cook meals. People don’t have time to eat at home or they're just too lazy to cook something healthy. Kids are being fed at school, and the food that they get is not healthy. It’s not that the school doesn’t provide healthy food, it’s just that the kids choose to eat whatever they want, and not remembering that they need to eat healthy food.

I’ve learned that obesity is not only attacking rich countries but poor ones too. People who can afford junk food choose to eat it whenever they want because it taste good. People are eating hamburgers, pizza, and other fast food just because they like it even though the food cost a lot of money in their countries. China and India are in the lowest rank of overweight adults, but obesity is expanding because of the urban population growth and more middle class people are able to afford all kinds of food they like. I found out that the number of obese people in China has tripled since 1992. This should not be happening anywhere in the world. I think people should know that food is not supposed to take our lives but to help us. We usually eat food to get healthy, but now these days we eat food that takes our lives. I understand that developing countries are dealing with “nutrition transition.” Obesity has also been a problem for the poor people because all they can afford is junk food. All they are filled up with is junk food that’s high on calories value but not anything else. This is how the majority of people in the U.S. are living everyday. McDonald has been a place for most parents who don’t have time to cook a good meal or don’t have enough money to provide a better meal for their families.

When people eat junk food, all they think about or worry about is getting fat, but they don’t realize that it’s not really about that. I understand that nobody wants to be overweight. The big problem that we should consider when we are eating non-healthy food and not even taking time to exercise is the diseases that we are going to catch from those foods. I know that sometimes we don’t think about it until we actually have the disease. I heard one time from my Kinesiology professor that people these days don’t care about their health until there’re the victims of obesity or other diseases that are caused by non-healthy food. I’ve learned that due to urbanization a lot of people are living in the denser environment, cities where they don’t get any more traditional food, and all they get is food provided by the industrial food supply.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has found out that in all the countries in the world that are facing overweight problems Nauru is on the top of the list with 94.5% of its adult population aged from 15 and up. This is unbelievable, I think something needs to be done in this country because obesity is very dangerous and it’s one of the problems that we all should not ignore because it takes lives everyday.

The United States is number 9 on the list with 74.1% of those over 15years old. This is bad, knowing that only 24.9% of the U.S. population is not overweight. I know that it’s hard sometimes with parents to have time to cook a good meal for their family, but I think we should at least consider exercising. Sometimes all kids get to eat is the café food that is not healthy, or their parents let them seat at home and watch TV all day and never get up and do something physical. I know that parents do that, too, and their kids learn from their examples. It all goes back to what my professor said. We should try to prevent obesity before we are the victims of it.

Europe ban smoking in Public places

The fact that smoking has been a big part of the world is very dangerous. The government has allowed the cigarette company to have its way. They have not done anything to stop smoking in the world. I understand that the tobacco company pays a lot of taxes, and the government would lose a lot of money but this should not even be a choice.

I’ve learned that people smoke for different reasons. Some people smoke because they believe that smoking will take their stress away and are able to relax, some of them smoke because they want to lose weigh, and the biggest one is teens who smoke because they think it’s “cool.”

Knowing how threatening smoking is to our health we shouldn’t even consider doing it. I believe that sometimes people don’t care about it until they have to go to the doctor and learn that they have lung cancer. I don’t understand why we don’t take care of the problem before we are a part of it. I found out that when people start smoking they become addicted to it and they can’t control how much they smoke a day or can’t stop it when they want to. This is very hard for women because when they get pregnant and they have to stop smoking for those nine months it becomes very hard, and most of they don’t listen to the instruction that the doctor gave them, so they cheat and smoke sometimes when nobody is watching them. Smoking is toxic the unborn babies, and mothers need to understand that. If a mother keeps smoking during the pregnancy she risks of losing her child, or giving birth to a mentally ill child. Stopping smoking should be a good decision that a pregnant mother would need to take for her benefit and the child’s.

Smoking does not only affect the people who do it, but it affects those who are around them everyday. I know that parents who smoke try to encourage their kids not to smoke, but those parents are still putting those kids in risk. I’ve learned that 49,000 non-smokers die here in the U.S. This is ridiculous and we should not let it happen.

Reading from the Scotsman.com news I found out that Europe has decided to ban smoking in the public place. I think this is a big step for them knowing that Europe has the highest rate of smokers. This has been proposed to all 27countries in Europe. All Europe governments, no-governmental organizations, consumers, and the tobacco company have decided to meet and discuss about banning smoking by May 31. They understand how smoking is a big threat to their people and want to do something about it. Health commissioner Kyprianou who is an ex-smoker said that he will not be speaking to the tobacco company because he doesn’t think it’s going to help in anyway. He said that all they do is produce products that kill people. I’ve learned that 650, 000 Europeans die every year from tobacco related diseases, and this includes 19, 000 second hand smokers who are victims of those who smoke. This is ridiculous; I really don’t understand how we allowed a company like tobacco to exist when all its doing is takes lives of our loved ones just because we’re going to get rich from it. It’s hard to believe how much a cigarette cost, and people are still buying them.

I learned that Ireland was the first country in the world to bring in a nationwide ban on smoking in public, restaurants, and other work places. Kyprianou thinks that if they can come to follow Ireland’s example on this they will have an opportunity to push a little bit more on other places. Some countries such as Germany have opposed the ban, but others like Belgium and France have favored some of the laws. This can take time because some countries are going to have a hard time banning smoking in public, but if they can try to do it step by step they can actually do it. This can be a good idea that every other countries should think about, and it can change our world.