Sociology of health and illness
Encyclopedia
The Sociology of Health and Illness examines the interaction between society
and health
. The objective of this topic is to see how social life has an impact on morbidity and mortality rate
, and vice versa. This aspect of sociology differs from medical sociology
in that this branch of sociology discusses health
and illness
in relation to social institutions such as family
, employment
, and school
. The sociology of medicine
limits its concern to the patient-practitioner relationship and the role of health professionals in society. The sociology of health and illness covers sociological pathology (causes of disease and illness), reasons for seeking particular types of medical aid, and patient compliance or noncompliance with medical regimes.
Health, or lack of health, was once merely attributed to biological or natural conditions. Sociologists have demonstrated that the spread of diseases is heavily influenced by the socioeconomic status of individuals, ethnic traditions or beliefs, and other cultural factors. Where medical research might gather statistics on a disease, a sociological perspective on an illness would provide insight on what external factors caused the demographics who contracted the disease to become ill.
This topic requires a global approach of analysis because the influence of societal factors varies throughout the world. This will be demonstrated through discussion of the major diseases of each continent. These diseases are sociologically examined and compared based on the traditional medicine
, economics
, religion
, and culture
that is specific to each region. HIV/AIDS serves as a common basis of comparison among regions. While it is extremely problematic in certain areas, in others it has affected a relatively small percentage of the population. Sociological factors can help to explain why these discrepancies exist.
There are obvious differences in patterns of health and illness across societies, over time, and within particular society types. There has historically been a long-term decline in mortality within industrialized societies, and on average, life-expectancies are considerably higher in developed, rather than developing or undeveloped, societies. Patterns of global change in health care systems make it more imperative than ever to research
and comprehend the sociology of health and illness. Continuous changes in economy, therapy
, technology
and insurance
can affect the way individual communities view and respond to the medical care available. These rapid fluctuations cause the issue of health and illness within social life to be very dynamic in definition. Advancing information is vital because as patterns evolve, the study of the sociology of health and illness constantly needs to be updated.
The study of health and illness within society is not revolutionary, and neither is its research a new feat. Humans have long sought after advice from those with the knowledge or skill in healing
. Paleopathology
, and other historical records, allowing an examination of how ancient societies dealt with illness and outbreak
. Rulers in Ancient Egypt sponsored physicians that were specialists in specific diseases. Imhotep
was the first medical doctor known by name. An Egyptian who lived around 2650 B.C., he was an adviser to King Zoser at a time when Egyptians were making progress in medicine. Among his contributions to medicine was a textbook on the treatment of wounds, broken bones, and even tumors.
Stopping the spread of infectious disease was of utmost importance for maintaining a healthy society. The outbreak of disease
during the Peloponnesian War
was recorded by Thucydides
who survived the epidemic
. From his account it is shown how factors outside the disease itself can have an impact on society. The Athenians were under siege and concentrated within the city. Major city centers were the hardest hit. This made the outbreak even more deadly and with probable food shortages the fate of Athens
was inevitable. Approximately 25% of the population died of the disease
. Thucydides stated that the epidemic
"carried away all alike". The disease
attacked people of different ages, sexes and nationalities.
Ancient medical systems stressed the importance of reducing illness through divination
and ritual. Other codes of behavior and dietary protocols were widespread in the ancient world. During the Zhou Dynasty
in China, doctors suggested exercise, meditation and temperance to preserve one's health. The Chinese closely link health with spiritual well-being. Health regimes in ancient India
focused on oral health as the best method for a healthy life. The Talmudic code
created rules for health which stressed ritual cleanliness, connected disease with certain animals and created diets. Other examples include the Mosaic Code and Roman baths
and aqueducts.
Those that were most concerned with health, sanitation and illness in the ancient world were those in the elite class. Good health was thought to reduce the risk of spiritual defilement and therefore enhanced the social status of the ruling class who saw themselves as the beacon of civilization. During the late Roman Period, sanitation for the lower classes were a concern for the leisured class. Those that had the means would donate to charities that focused on the health of non-elites. After the decline of the Roman Empire
, physicians and concern with public health disappeared except in the largest cities. Health and public doctors remained in the Byzantine Empire
. Focusing on preventing the spread of diseases such as small pox lead to a smaller mortality rate in much of the western world. Other factors that allowed the modern rise in population includes: better nutrition and environmental reforms (such as getting clean water supplies).
The present day sense of health being a public concern for the state began in the Middle Ages
. A few state interventions include maintaining clean towns, enforcing quarantines during epidemics and supervising sewer systems. Private corporations also played a role in public health. The funding for research and the institutions for them to work were funded by governments and private firms. Epidemics were the cause of most government interventions. The early goal of public health was reactionary
whereas the modern goal is to prevent disease before it becomes a prolem. Despite the overall improvement of world health, there still has not been any decrease in the health gap between the affluent and the impoverished. Today, society is more likely to blame health issues on the individual rather than society as a whole. This was the prevailing view in the late 20th century. In the 1980s the Black Report
, published in the United Kingdom, went against this view and argued that the true root of the problem was material deprivation. This report proposed a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy to address these issues. Since this did not parallel the views of England's conservative government, it did not go into action immediately. The Conservative government was criticized by the Labour Party for not implementing the suggestions that the Black Report listed. This criticism gave the Black Report the exposure it needed and its arguments were considered a valid explanation for health inequality. There is also a debate over whether poverty
causes ill-health or if ill-health causes poverty. Arguments by the National Health Services gave considerable emphasis on poverty and lack of access to health care. It has also been found that heredity
has more of a bearing on health than social environment, but research has also proved that there is indeed a positive correlation between socioeconomic inequalities and illness.
. By looking at bad health, researchers can see if health affects different social regulations or controls. When measuring the distribution of health and illness, it is useful to look at official statistics
and community surveys. Official statistics make it possible to look at people who have been treated. It shows that they are both willing and able to use health services. It also sheds light on the infected person’s view of their illness
. On the other hand, community surveys look at people’s rating of their health. Then looking at the relation of clinically defined illness and self reports and find that there is often a discrepancy.
A great deal of the time, mortality statistics take the place of morbidity statistics because in many developed societies where people typically die from degenerative conditions, the age in which they die sheds more light on their life-time health. This produces many limitations
when looking at the pattern of sickness, but sociologists try to look at various data to analyze the distribution better. Normally, developing societies have lower life-expectancies in comparison to developed countries. They have also found correlations between mortality and sex and age. Very young and old people are more susceptible to sickness and death
. On average women typically live longer than men, although women are more likely to have bad health.
Disparities in health were also found between people in different social classes and ethnicities within the same society, even though in the medical profession they put more importance in “health related behaviors” such as alcohol consumption, smoking, diet, and exercise. There is a great deal of data supporting the conclusion that these behaviors affect health more significantly than other factors. Sociologists think that it is more helpful to look at health and illness through a broad lens. Sociologists agree that alcohol
consumption, smoking, diet, and exercise are important issues, but they also see the importance of analyzing the cultural factors that affect these patterns. Sociologists also look at the effects that the productive process has on health and illness. While also looking at things such as industrial pollution
, environmental pollution, accidents at work, and stress-related diseases.
Social factors play a significant role in developing health and illness. Studies of epidemiology
show that autonomy and control in the workplace are vital factors in the etiology of heart disease. One cause is an effort-reward imbalance. Decreasing career advancement opportunities and major imbalances in control over work have been coupled with various negative health costs. Various studies have shown that pension rights may shed light on mortality differences between retired men and women of different socioeconomic statuses. These studies show that there are outside factors that influence health and illness.
begins to fail, leading to life-threatening infections. Two-thirds of the worlds HIV population is located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since the epidemic started more than 15 million Africans have died by complications with HIV/AIDS.
People apart of religious sub-groups of Sub-Saharan Africa
and those who actively and frequently participate in religious activities are more likely to be at a lower risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. On the opposite end, there are many beliefs that an infected male can be cured of the infection
by having sex with a virgin. These beliefs increase the number of people with the virus
and also increase the number of rapes against women.
Herbal treatment is one of the primary medicines used to treat HIV in Africa. It is used more than standard treatment because it is more affordable. Herbal treatment is more affordable but is not researched and is poorly regulated . This lack of research on whether the herbal medicines work and what the medicines consist of is a major flaw in the healing cycle of HIV in Africa.
Economically, HIV is a heavy hitter in tearing down the economy. The labor force in Africa is slowly diminishing, due to HIV-related deaths and illness. In response, government income declines and so does tax revenue. The government has to spend more money than it is making, in order to care for those affected with HIV/AIDS.
A major social problem in Africa in regards to HIV is the orphan epidemic. The orphan epidemic in Africa is a regional problem. In most cases, both of the parents are affected with HIV. Due to this, the children are usually raised by their grandmothers and in extreme cases they are raised by themselves. In order to care for the sick parents, the children have to take on more responsibility by working to produce an income. Not only do the children lose their parents but they also lose their childhood as well. Having to provide care for their parents, the children also miss out on an education which increases the risk of teen pregnancy and people affected with HIV. The most efficient way to diminish the orphan epidemic is prevention: preventing children from acquiring HIV from their mothers at birth, as well as educating them on the disease as they grow older. Also, educating adults about HIV and caring for the infected people adequately will lower the orphan population.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic is reducing the average life expectancy
of people in Africa by twenty years. The age range with the highest death rates, due to HIV, are those between the ages of 20 and 49 years. The fact that this age range is when adults acquire most of their income
they cannot afford to send their children to school, due to the high medication costs. It also removes the people who could help aid in responding to the epidemic.
, for example, has the third highest life expectancy (82 years old), while Afghanistan
has the 11th worst (44 years old). Key issues in Asian health include childbirth and maternal health, HIV and AIDS, mental health, and aging and the elderly. These problems are influenced by the sociological factors of religion or belief systems, attempts to reconcile traditional medicinal practices with modern professionalism, and the economic status of the inhabitants of Asia.
Like the rest of the world, Asia is threatened by a possible pandemic of HIV and AIDS. Vietnam
is a good example of how society is shaping Asian HIV/AIDS awareness and attitudes towards this disease. Vietnam is a country with feudal, traditional roots, which, due to invasion, wars, technology and travel is becoming increasingly globalized. Globalization
has altered traditional viewpoints and values. It is also responsible for the spread of HIV and AIDS in Vietnam. Even early globalization has added to this problem – Chinese influence made Vietnam a Confucian society
, in which women are of less importance than men. Men in their superiority have no need to be sexually responsible, and women, generally not well educated, are often unaware of the risk, perpetuating the spread of HIV and AIDS as well as other STIs.
Confucianism has had a strong influence on the belief system in Asia for centuries, particularly in China, Japan, and Korea, and its influence can be seen in the way people chose to seek, or not seek, medical care. An important issue in Asia is societal impact on the ability of disabled individuals to adjust to a disability. Cultural beliefs shape attitudes towards physical and mental disabilities. China exemplifies this problem. According to Chinese Confucian tradition (which is also applicable in other countries where Confucianism
has been spread), people should always pursue good health in their lives, with an emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention. To the Chinese, having a disability signifies that one has not led a proper lifestyle and therefore there is a lack of opportunities for disabled individuals to explore better ways to accept or adapt to their disability.
Indigenous healing practices are extremely diverse throughout Asia but often follow certain patterns and are still prevalent today. Many traditional healing practices include shamanism
and herbal medicines
, and may have been passed down orally in small groups or even institutionalized and professionalized. In many developing countries the only health care available until a few decades ago were those based on traditional medicine and spiritual healing. Now governments must be careful to create health policies that strike a balance between modernity and tradition. Organization like the World Health Organization
try to create policies that respect tradition without trying to replace it with modern science, instead regulating it to ensure safety but keeping it accessible. India in particular tries to make traditional medicines safe but still available to as many people as possible, adapting tradition to match modernization while still considering the economic positions and culture of its citizens.
Mental health issues are gaining an increasing amount of attention in Asian countries. Many of these countries have a preoccupation with modernizing and developing their economies, resulting in cultural changes. In order to reconcile modern techniques with traditional practices, social psychologists
in India are in the process of “indigenizing
psychology”. Indigenous psychology is that which is derived from the laws, theories, principals, and ideas of a culture and unique to each society.
In many Asian countries, childbirth is still treated by traditional means and is thought of with regional attitudes. For example, in Pakistan
, decisions concerning pregnancy and antenatal care
(ANC) are usually made by older women, often the pregnant woman’s mother-in-law, while the mother and father to be are distanced from the process. They may or may not receive professional ANC depending on their education, class, and financial situation. Generally in Asia, childbirth is still a woman’s area and male obstetricians are rare. Female midwives and healers are still the norm in most places. Western methods are overtaking the traditional in an attempt to improve maternal health and increase the number of live births.
Asian countries, which are mostly developing nations, are aging rapidly
even as they are attempting to build their economies. Even wealthy Asian nations, such as Japan, Singapore
, and Taiwan
, also have very elderly populations and thus have to try to sustain their economies and society with small younger generations while caring for their elderly citizens. The elderly have been traditionally well-respected and well cared for in most Asian cultures; experts predict that younger generations in the future are less likely to be concerned and involved in the health care of their older relatives due to various factors such as women joining the workforce more, the separation of families because of urbanization or migration, and the proliferation of Western ideals such as individualism.
, which includes the Pacific Islands
, have been very much influenced by European colonization. While indigenous medicinal beliefs are not significantly prevalent in Australia, traditional ideas are still influential in the health care problems in many of the islands of the Pacific. The rapid urbanization
of Australia led to epidemics of typhoid fever
and the Bubonic plague
. Because of this, public health was professionalized beginning in the late 1870s in an effort to control these and other diseases. Since then Australia’s health system has evolved similarly to Western countries and the main cultural influence affecting health care are the political ideologies of the parties in control of the government.
Australia has had treatment facilities for ‘problem drinkers’ since the 1870s. In the 1960s and 1970s it was recognized that Australia had several hundred thousand alcoholics and prevention became a priority over cures, as there was a societal consensus that treatments are generally ineffective. The government began passing laws attempting to curb alcohol consumption but consistently met opposition from the wine-making regions of southern Australia
. The government has also waged a war on illegal drugs, particularly heroin, which in the 1950s became widely used as a pain reliever.
Experts believe that many of the History of the Pacific Islands
health problems in the Pacific Islands can be traced to European colonization and the subsequent globalization and modernization of island communities. European colonization and late independence meant modernization but also slow economic growth, which had an enormous impact on health care, particularly on nutrition
in the Pacific Islands. The end of colonization meant a loss of medical resources, and the fledgling independent governments could not afford to continue the health policies put in place by the colonial governments. Nutrition was changed radically, contributing to various other health problems. While more prosperous, urban areas could afford food, they chose poor diets, causing ‘overnourishment’, and leading to extremely high levels of obesity
, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Poorer rural communities, on the other hand, continue to suffer from malnutrition
and malaria
.
Traditional diets in the Pacific are very low in fat, but since World War II there has been a significant increase in fat
and protein
in Pacific diets. Native attitudes towards weight contribute to the obesity problem. Tonga
n natives see obesity as a positive thing, especially in men. They also believe that women should do as little physical work as possible while the men provide for them, meaning they get very little exercise.
European Region. The goal is to improve the health of poor and disadvantaged populations by promoting healthy lifestyles including environmental, economic, social and providing health care
. Overall health in Europe is very high compared to the rest of the world. The average life expectancy is around 78 in EU countries but there is a wide gap between Western and Eastern Europe. It is as low as 67 in Russia and 73 in the Balkan states. Europe is seeing an increase in the spread of HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe because of a worsening socioeconomic situation. Cardiovascular disease
, cancer and diabetes mellitus
are more prevalent is Eastern Europe. The WHO
claims that poverty is the most important factor bringing on ill health across Europe. Those at low Socioeconomic status
levels and many young people are also at risk because of their increased tobacco, alcohol and drug abuse. Health and illness prevention in Europe is largely funded by governmental services including: regulating health care, insurance and social programs. The role of religion and traditional medicine however, is often left unexamined in such reports.
The study of hypertension
within the United Kingdom
has turned to examining the role that beliefs play in its diagnosis and treatment. Hypertension is an essential topic for study since it is linked to increased risk of stroke
and coronary heart disease
. The most common treatment for hypertension is medication but compliance for this treatment plan is low. A study conducted in the UK examined the differences between 'white' patients and first generation immigrants from the West Indies. There were differing reasons for non-compliance that involve the patients perception and beliefs about the diagnosis
. Patients commonly believe that high levels of anxiety
when first diagnosed are the major cause and think that when stress levels decline so too will their hypertension. Other respondents in this UK based study had varying beliefs concerning the necessity of medication while others still argued that it was the side effects
of medication that made them end their prescribed regiment. West Indian respondents whose lay culture
teaches them to reject long-term drug therapy opted instead for folk remedies in higher numbers than the 'white' respondents. What can be seen here is that some people will choose to ignore a doctor's expert advice and will employ 'lay consultation' instead.
Before people seek medical help they try to interpret the symptoms themselves and often consult people in their lives or use 'self-help' measures. A study of 'everyday illness' in Finland
including: influenza
, infections and musculo-skeletal problems focused on reasons for consulting medical experts and explanations of illness. These common illness were examined not because of their seriousness but because of their frequency. The researchers explain five possible triggers that people seek medical aid: 1- the occurrence of an interpersonal crisis 2- perceived interference with social and personal relations 3- perceived interference with vocational & physical activity 4- sanctioning by other people 5- sufferers ideas about how long certain complaints should last. These kind of explanatory models are part of the process that people use to construct medical culture. They give meaning to illness and health, answer questions about personal responsibility about health and most importantly are part of the dialogue between patients' and professionals' illness explanations. It can help explore why some patients will follow a doctors instructions to the letter and others ignore them completely. A patient's explanation or understanding of their illness can be much broader than a physician's and this dynamic has become a major criticism of modern medical practice since it normally excludes the "social, psychological and experiential dimensions of illness."
The Finnish study examined 127 patients and the results have been different from findings in other countries where there is more 'lay consultation'. Half of the respondents did not have any lay consultation before coming to the doctors office. One-third did not try any self-treatment and three-quarters of the sample consulted the doctor within three days of symptoms developing. Possible explanations are that in Finland
there is an aspect "over-protectiveness" within their health care system. Many might conclude that the Finnish people are dependent and helpless but the researchers of this study found that people chose to consult professionals because they trusted them over some lay explanation. These results echo similar studies in Ireland that explain this phenomenon as being based in a strong work ethic. Illness in these countries will affect their work and Finnish people will quickly get treatment so they can return to work. This research out of Finland also describes that this relationship between patient and doctor is based on:
The conflict between medical and lay worlds is prominent. On one hand many patients believe they are the expert of their own body and view the Doctor-patient relationship
as authoritarian. These people will often use knowledge outside the medical field to deal with health and illness. Others see the doctor as the expert and are shy about describing their symptoms and therefore rely on the doctor for diagnosis and treatment.
North America is a fairly recent settled continent, made up of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. It was built by an amalgamation of wealth, ideas, culture, and practices. North America is highly advanced intellectually, technologically, and traditionally. This advantageous character of North American nations has caused a high average life expectancy
of 75 years for males and 80 years for females. This leads to the conclusion that North America has cultivated a comparatively healthy society. As North America contains several core nations, the growing economies in those nations are able to maintain and develop medical institutions. This subsequently provides more access to health care for American citizens but health care is not universal. North America is known for being a leading nation in regards to industrialization and modernization, but the United States still lacks federal laws regarding health care as a right. This lag of health care security causes subsequent issues with pharmaceutical competition, lack of care for the elderly, and little attention to alternative medicine. Health care and education are plentiful at a price and illness still persists for many reasons. A main reason is that a lower- and middle-class population still exists in plentiful, maintaining a group that is highly vulnerable to physical ailment.
North America's primary risk factors
for illness are currently alcohol abuse, malnutrition
, obesity
, tobacco
use, and water sanitation. Obesity
is a recent pandemics in North America. The 1990s brought a rise in the average Body Mass Index
, or BMI. From the beginning and to the end of the decade, the median percent of adults who were obese went from 12% to 20%. This may be because of the materialistic and individualistic character of North America. Alcoholism
is the addiction of over-consumption of alcohol and is highly prevalent in the US. There are high incidence rates in many other world regions. Roughly 61% of American adults drank in 2007, and 21% of current drinkers consumed five or more drinks at one point in the last year. There have also been 22,073 alcohol induced deaths in the United States in the past year with about 13,000 of them related to liver disease. Alcoholism has many risk factors ingrained in North American culture, such as heredity, stress from competition or availability. The ideological individualism and the competitive capitalism may play a part in increased risk of alcohol abuse as well.
The Swine Flu
(also known as (H1N1) epidemic is a recent disease emerging in the early 21st century. Its origins were traced back to Mexico
, from where it rapidly infected the rest of North America. In April 2009, during the early days of the outbreak, a molecular biologist named Dr. Henry Miller wrote in the Wall Street Journal about New York City
high-school students. These students apparently brought the virus back from Mexico and infected their classmates. All six cases so far reported in Canada
were connected directly or indirectly with travel to Mexico as well. Flu viruses can be directly transmitted (via droplets from sneezing or coughing) from pigs to people, and vice versa. These cross-species infections occur most commonly when people are close to large numbers of pigs, such as in barns, livestock exhibits at fairs, and slaughterhouses. The flu is transmissible from human to human, either directly or via contaminated surfaces."
s that affect South America
but, two of the major conditions are malaria
and Hepatitis
D.
Malaria affects every country in South America except: Uruguay
, Chile
. The Falkland Islands
also are not affected by malaria. Elevation
has a key influence on areas where malaria is found. The disease is spread to person to person via mosquito
bites. People are typically bitten by mosquitoes in the dusk or dawn. Symptoms of this disorder are: high fever, chills, sweating, headaches, body aches, weakness, vomiting and diarrhea
. New symptoms can develop if malaria worsens; people that are infected may experience seizures, delirium and coma
. Severe cases may end in death
. Malaria can be cured, but the symptoms may not become noticeable until months later. There are three forms of medication that will help cure Malaria. An infected person’s accessibility is dependent on if the person has the money or proper doctors to help them with the matter. Literature about Malaria treatment typically is focused toward people who are tourists. They have a more lighthearted tone because typically tourist have access to doctors so they can get the proper care to overcome the disease, however this does not account for the health of the natives.
The first sign of Hepatitis
D was detected in 1978 when a strange and unrecognizable internuclear antigen
was discovered during a liver
biopsy
of several Italians that suffered HBV infection. Scientists initially thought that it was an antigenic specificity of HBV, but they soon found that it was a protein
from another disease altogether. They called it "Hepatitis Delta Virus". This new virus was found to be defective. HDV needed HBV to act as a helper function in order for it to be detected. Normally Hepatitis B is transmitted through blood
or any type of blood product. In South America
Hepatitis D was found to be fatal. Scientist
s are still unsure in what way this disease was being transmitted throughout certain South American countries. Sexual contact and drug use
are the most common means of transmission. HDV is still considered an unusual form of hepatitis. Agents of this virus resemble that of plant viroids. It is still hard to tell how many stereotypes exist because HDV is under the umbrella of HBV. HDV causes very high titers in the blood of people who are infected. Incubation of Hepatitis D typically lasts for thirty five days. Most often Hepatitis D is a co-infection with Hepatitis B or a super-infection with chronic hepatitis. In terms of super infections there are high mortality rates, ranging seventy to eighty percent; in contrast with co-infections which have a one to three percent mortality rate. There is little information with the ecology of Hepatitis D. Epidemics have been found in Venezuela, Peru, Columbia, and Brazil. People who are treated for Hepatitis B have been able to control Hepatitis D. People whom have chronic HDB will continue to get HDV.
Another disease that affects South America is HIV and AIDS. In 2008 roughly two million people had HIV and AIDS. By the end of 2008 one hundred and seventy thousand people were infected with AIDS and HIV. Seventy seven thousand people died from this disease by the end of that year. Brazil has the most people that are affected with AIDS and HIV in South America. Forty-three percent of people in Brazil have HIV. In Brazil sixty percent of the inhabitants use drugs, are HIV positive, and are HIV positive because of their drug use. Usually this disease is transmitted by either drug use involving needles or men having sex with other men unprotected. Unprotected sex between two men is the most common. Roughly twenty-five to thirty-three percent of these men also have sex with women and in turn infect them also. Sharing needles and being infected with HIV and AIDS is most common in Paraguay and Uruguay. South America is trying to get treatment to the thousands of people infected by this disease. Brazil is offering generic AIDS prescriptions that are much less expensive than the name brand drugs. One hundred and eighty-one thousand inhabitants in Brazil who were infected are being treated. That accounts for eighty percent of those who needed immediate help. This aid from the government has had positive results. Statistics show that there was a fifty percent decrease in mortality rates, approximately sixty to eighty percent decrease in morbidity rates and a seventy percent decrease in hospitalization of infected people.
In very remote areas of South America, traditional healers are the only forms of health care people have.
In north Aymara and south Mapuche where the indigenous groups have a strongest voices, they still heavily use traditional medicine. The government in Chile has implemented an Indigenous Health System to help strengthen the health care system. Even with Chile's indigenous groups, Chile still has the best public health services in South America. They also have the lowest mortality rates in the area. Their health care policies are centered around family and community well being by focusing on the strategies for prevention health strategies. Reports have shown an increase in mental health issues, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.
South America's economy is developing rapidly and has a great deal of industries. The major industry in South America are agriculture. Other industries are fishing, handicrafts, and natural resources. Its trade and import-export market is continually thriving. In the past South American countries moved slowly in regards to economic development. South America began to build its economy ever since World War II. South America's largest economies are Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Columbia. Venezuela, Peru, and Argentina's economy are growing very rapidly.
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
and health
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
. The objective of this topic is to see how social life has an impact on morbidity and mortality rate
Mortality rate
Mortality rate is a measure of the number of deaths in a population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit time...
, and vice versa. This aspect of sociology differs from medical sociology
Medical sociology
Medical sociology is the sociological analysis of medical organizations and institutions; the production of knowledges and selection of methods, the actions and interactions of healthcare professionals, and the social or cultural effects of medical practice...
in that this branch of sociology discusses health
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
and illness
Illness
Illness is a state of poor health. Illness is sometimes considered another word for disease. Others maintain that fine distinctions exist...
in relation to social institutions such as family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
, employment
Employment
Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...
, and school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
. The sociology of medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
limits its concern to the patient-practitioner relationship and the role of health professionals in society. The sociology of health and illness covers sociological pathology (causes of disease and illness), reasons for seeking particular types of medical aid, and patient compliance or noncompliance with medical regimes.
Health, or lack of health, was once merely attributed to biological or natural conditions. Sociologists have demonstrated that the spread of diseases is heavily influenced by the socioeconomic status of individuals, ethnic traditions or beliefs, and other cultural factors. Where medical research might gather statistics on a disease, a sociological perspective on an illness would provide insight on what external factors caused the demographics who contracted the disease to become ill.
This topic requires a global approach of analysis because the influence of societal factors varies throughout the world. This will be demonstrated through discussion of the major diseases of each continent. These diseases are sociologically examined and compared based on the traditional medicine
Traditional medicine
Traditional medicine comprises unscientific knowledge systems that developed over generations within various societies before the era of modern medicine...
, economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
, and culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
that is specific to each region. HIV/AIDS serves as a common basis of comparison among regions. While it is extremely problematic in certain areas, in others it has affected a relatively small percentage of the population. Sociological factors can help to explain why these discrepancies exist.
There are obvious differences in patterns of health and illness across societies, over time, and within particular society types. There has historically been a long-term decline in mortality within industrialized societies, and on average, life-expectancies are considerably higher in developed, rather than developing or undeveloped, societies. Patterns of global change in health care systems make it more imperative than ever to research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
and comprehend the sociology of health and illness. Continuous changes in economy, therapy
Therapy
This is a list of types of therapy .* Adventure therapy* Animal-assisted therapy* Aquatic therapy* Aromatherapy* Art and dementia* Art therapy* Authentic Movement* Behavioral therapy* Bibliotherapy* Buteyko Method* Chemotherapy...
, technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
and insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
can affect the way individual communities view and respond to the medical care available. These rapid fluctuations cause the issue of health and illness within social life to be very dynamic in definition. Advancing information is vital because as patterns evolve, the study of the sociology of health and illness constantly needs to be updated.
Historical background
Healing
Physiological healing is the restoration of damaged living tissue, organs and biological system to normal function. It is the process by which the cells in the body regenerate and repair to reduce the size of a damaged or necrotic area....
. Paleopathology
Paleopathology
Paleopathology, also spelled palaeopathology, is the study of ancient diseases. It is useful in understanding the past history of diseases, and uses this understanding to predict its course in the future.- History of paleopathology :...
, and other historical records, allowing an examination of how ancient societies dealt with illness and outbreak
Outbreak
Outbreak is a term used in epidemiology to describe an occurrence of disease greater than would otherwise be expected at a particular time and place. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire continent. Two linked cases of a rare infectious...
. Rulers in Ancient Egypt sponsored physicians that were specialists in specific diseases. Imhotep
Imhotep
Imhotep , fl. 27th century BC was an Egyptian polymath, who served under the Third Dynasty king Djoser as chancellor to the pharaoh and high priest of the sun god Ra at Heliopolis...
was the first medical doctor known by name. An Egyptian who lived around 2650 B.C., he was an adviser to King Zoser at a time when Egyptians were making progress in medicine. Among his contributions to medicine was a textbook on the treatment of wounds, broken bones, and even tumors.
Stopping the spread of infectious disease was of utmost importance for maintaining a healthy society. The outbreak of disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
during the Peloponnesian War
Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC, was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases...
was recorded by Thucydides
Thucydides
Thucydides was a Greek historian and author from Alimos. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC...
who survived the epidemic
Epidemic
In epidemiology, an epidemic , occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience...
. From his account it is shown how factors outside the disease itself can have an impact on society. The Athenians were under siege and concentrated within the city. Major city centers were the hardest hit. This made the outbreak even more deadly and with probable food shortages the fate of Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
was inevitable. Approximately 25% of the population died of the disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
. Thucydides stated that the epidemic
Epidemic
In epidemiology, an epidemic , occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience...
"carried away all alike". The disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
attacked people of different ages, sexes and nationalities.
Divination
Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...
and ritual. Other codes of behavior and dietary protocols were widespread in the ancient world. During the Zhou Dynasty
Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty. Although the Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, the actual political and military control of China by the Ji family lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as...
in China, doctors suggested exercise, meditation and temperance to preserve one's health. The Chinese closely link health with spiritual well-being. Health regimes in ancient India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
focused on oral health as the best method for a healthy life. The Talmudic code
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
created rules for health which stressed ritual cleanliness, connected disease with certain animals and created diets. Other examples include the Mosaic Code and Roman baths
Roman Baths
The Roman Baths complex is a site of historical interest in the English city of Bath. The house is a well-preserved Roman site for public bathing....
and aqueducts.
Those that were most concerned with health, sanitation and illness in the ancient world were those in the elite class. Good health was thought to reduce the risk of spiritual defilement and therefore enhanced the social status of the ruling class who saw themselves as the beacon of civilization. During the late Roman Period, sanitation for the lower classes were a concern for the leisured class. Those that had the means would donate to charities that focused on the health of non-elites. After the decline of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, physicians and concern with public health disappeared except in the largest cities. Health and public doctors remained in the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
. Focusing on preventing the spread of diseases such as small pox lead to a smaller mortality rate in much of the western world. Other factors that allowed the modern rise in population includes: better nutrition and environmental reforms (such as getting clean water supplies).
The present day sense of health being a public concern for the state began in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. A few state interventions include maintaining clean towns, enforcing quarantines during epidemics and supervising sewer systems. Private corporations also played a role in public health. The funding for research and the institutions for them to work were funded by governments and private firms. Epidemics were the cause of most government interventions. The early goal of public health was reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
whereas the modern goal is to prevent disease before it becomes a prolem. Despite the overall improvement of world health, there still has not been any decrease in the health gap between the affluent and the impoverished. Today, society is more likely to blame health issues on the individual rather than society as a whole. This was the prevailing view in the late 20th century. In the 1980s the Black Report
Black Report
The Black report was a 1980 document published by the Department of Health and Social Security in the United Kingdom, which was the report of the expert committee into health inequality chaired by Sir Douglas Black...
, published in the United Kingdom, went against this view and argued that the true root of the problem was material deprivation. This report proposed a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy to address these issues. Since this did not parallel the views of England's conservative government, it did not go into action immediately. The Conservative government was criticized by the Labour Party for not implementing the suggestions that the Black Report listed. This criticism gave the Black Report the exposure it needed and its arguments were considered a valid explanation for health inequality. There is also a debate over whether poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
causes ill-health or if ill-health causes poverty. Arguments by the National Health Services gave considerable emphasis on poverty and lack of access to health care. It has also been found that heredity
Heredity
Heredity is the passing of traits to offspring . This is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism. Through heredity, variations exhibited by individuals can accumulate and cause some species to evolve...
has more of a bearing on health than social environment, but research has also proved that there is indeed a positive correlation between socioeconomic inequalities and illness.
Methodology
The Sociology of Health and Illness looks at three areas: the conceptualization, the study of measurement and social distribution, and the justification of patterns in health and illness. By looking at these things researchers can look at different diseases through a sociological lens. The prevalence and response to different diseases varies by cultureCulture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
. By looking at bad health, researchers can see if health affects different social regulations or controls. When measuring the distribution of health and illness, it is useful to look at official statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
and community surveys. Official statistics make it possible to look at people who have been treated. It shows that they are both willing and able to use health services. It also sheds light on the infected person’s view of their illness
Illness
Illness is a state of poor health. Illness is sometimes considered another word for disease. Others maintain that fine distinctions exist...
. On the other hand, community surveys look at people’s rating of their health. Then looking at the relation of clinically defined illness and self reports and find that there is often a discrepancy.
A great deal of the time, mortality statistics take the place of morbidity statistics because in many developed societies where people typically die from degenerative conditions, the age in which they die sheds more light on their life-time health. This produces many limitations
Limitations
Limitations is a novel by Scott Turow which was published in 2006. It is by far his shortest novel and prior to publication as a novel was released as a serial story in the Sunday New York Times Magazine.-Plot summary:...
when looking at the pattern of sickness, but sociologists try to look at various data to analyze the distribution better. Normally, developing societies have lower life-expectancies in comparison to developed countries. They have also found correlations between mortality and sex and age. Very young and old people are more susceptible to sickness and death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
. On average women typically live longer than men, although women are more likely to have bad health.
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
consumption, smoking, diet, and exercise are important issues, but they also see the importance of analyzing the cultural factors that affect these patterns. Sociologists also look at the effects that the productive process has on health and illness. While also looking at things such as industrial pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
, environmental pollution, accidents at work, and stress-related diseases.
Social factors play a significant role in developing health and illness. Studies of epidemiology
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
show that autonomy and control in the workplace are vital factors in the etiology of heart disease. One cause is an effort-reward imbalance. Decreasing career advancement opportunities and major imbalances in control over work have been coupled with various negative health costs. Various studies have shown that pension rights may shed light on mortality differences between retired men and women of different socioeconomic statuses. These studies show that there are outside factors that influence health and illness.
Africa
HIV/AIDS is the leading epidemic that affects the social welfare of Africa. Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can cause AIDS which is an acronym for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), a condition in humans in which the immune systemImmune system
An immune system is a system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own...
begins to fail, leading to life-threatening infections. Two-thirds of the worlds HIV population is located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since the epidemic started more than 15 million Africans have died by complications with HIV/AIDS.
People apart of religious sub-groups of Sub-Saharan Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and those who actively and frequently participate in religious activities are more likely to be at a lower risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. On the opposite end, there are many beliefs that an infected male can be cured of the infection
Infection
An infection is the colonization of a host organism by parasite species. Infecting parasites seek to use the host's resources to reproduce, often resulting in disease...
by having sex with a virgin. These beliefs increase the number of people with the virus
Virus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
and also increase the number of rapes against women.
Herbal treatment is one of the primary medicines used to treat HIV in Africa. It is used more than standard treatment because it is more affordable. Herbal treatment is more affordable but is not researched and is poorly regulated . This lack of research on whether the herbal medicines work and what the medicines consist of is a major flaw in the healing cycle of HIV in Africa.
Economically, HIV is a heavy hitter in tearing down the economy. The labor force in Africa is slowly diminishing, due to HIV-related deaths and illness. In response, government income declines and so does tax revenue. The government has to spend more money than it is making, in order to care for those affected with HIV/AIDS.
A major social problem in Africa in regards to HIV is the orphan epidemic. The orphan epidemic in Africa is a regional problem. In most cases, both of the parents are affected with HIV. Due to this, the children are usually raised by their grandmothers and in extreme cases they are raised by themselves. In order to care for the sick parents, the children have to take on more responsibility by working to produce an income. Not only do the children lose their parents but they also lose their childhood as well. Having to provide care for their parents, the children also miss out on an education which increases the risk of teen pregnancy and people affected with HIV. The most efficient way to diminish the orphan epidemic is prevention: preventing children from acquiring HIV from their mothers at birth, as well as educating them on the disease as they grow older. Also, educating adults about HIV and caring for the infected people adequately will lower the orphan population.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic is reducing the average life expectancy
Life expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
of people in Africa by twenty years. The age range with the highest death rates, due to HIV, are those between the ages of 20 and 49 years. The fact that this age range is when adults acquire most of their income
Income
Income is the consumption and savings opportunity gained by an entity within a specified time frame, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. However, for households and individuals, "income is the sum of all the wages, salaries, profits, interests payments, rents and other forms of earnings...
they cannot afford to send their children to school, due to the high medication costs. It also removes the people who could help aid in responding to the epidemic.
Asia
Asian countries have wide variations of population, wealth, technology and health care, causing attitudes towards health and illness to differ. JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, for example, has the third highest life expectancy (82 years old), while Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
has the 11th worst (44 years old). Key issues in Asian health include childbirth and maternal health, HIV and AIDS, mental health, and aging and the elderly. These problems are influenced by the sociological factors of religion or belief systems, attempts to reconcile traditional medicinal practices with modern professionalism, and the economic status of the inhabitants of Asia.
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
is a good example of how society is shaping Asian HIV/AIDS awareness and attitudes towards this disease. Vietnam is a country with feudal, traditional roots, which, due to invasion, wars, technology and travel is becoming increasingly globalized. Globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
has altered traditional viewpoints and values. It is also responsible for the spread of HIV and AIDS in Vietnam. Even early globalization has added to this problem – Chinese influence made Vietnam a Confucian society
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
, in which women are of less importance than men. Men in their superiority have no need to be sexually responsible, and women, generally not well educated, are often unaware of the risk, perpetuating the spread of HIV and AIDS as well as other STIs.
Confucianism has had a strong influence on the belief system in Asia for centuries, particularly in China, Japan, and Korea, and its influence can be seen in the way people chose to seek, or not seek, medical care. An important issue in Asia is societal impact on the ability of disabled individuals to adjust to a disability. Cultural beliefs shape attitudes towards physical and mental disabilities. China exemplifies this problem. According to Chinese Confucian tradition (which is also applicable in other countries where Confucianism
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
has been spread), people should always pursue good health in their lives, with an emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention. To the Chinese, having a disability signifies that one has not led a proper lifestyle and therefore there is a lack of opportunities for disabled individuals to explore better ways to accept or adapt to their disability.
Indigenous healing practices are extremely diverse throughout Asia but often follow certain patterns and are still prevalent today. Many traditional healing practices include shamanism
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
and herbal medicines
Herbalism
Herbalism is a traditional medicinal or folk medicine practice based on the use of plants and plant extracts. Herbalism is also known as botanical medicine, medical herbalism, herbal medicine, herbology, herblore, and phytotherapy...
, and may have been passed down orally in small groups or even institutionalized and professionalized. In many developing countries the only health care available until a few decades ago were those based on traditional medicine and spiritual healing. Now governments must be careful to create health policies that strike a balance between modernity and tradition. Organization like the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
try to create policies that respect tradition without trying to replace it with modern science, instead regulating it to ensure safety but keeping it accessible. India in particular tries to make traditional medicines safe but still available to as many people as possible, adapting tradition to match modernization while still considering the economic positions and culture of its citizens.
Social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...
in India are in the process of “indigenizing
Indigenization
In anthropological terms, to "indigenize" means to force local cultures to adopt another. Most changes in original culture occur when western corporations impose their products on other economies, Westernizing. Some forms of indigenizing include: Spray painting slogans on bill-boards, interpreting...
psychology”. Indigenous psychology is that which is derived from the laws, theories, principals, and ideas of a culture and unique to each society.
In many Asian countries, childbirth is still treated by traditional means and is thought of with regional attitudes. For example, in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, decisions concerning pregnancy and antenatal care
Obstetrics
Obstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...
(ANC) are usually made by older women, often the pregnant woman’s mother-in-law, while the mother and father to be are distanced from the process. They may or may not receive professional ANC depending on their education, class, and financial situation. Generally in Asia, childbirth is still a woman’s area and male obstetricians are rare. Female midwives and healers are still the norm in most places. Western methods are overtaking the traditional in an attempt to improve maternal health and increase the number of live births.
Asian countries, which are mostly developing nations, are aging rapidly
Population ageing
Population ageing or population aging occurs when the median age of a country or region rises. This happens because of rising life expectancy or declining birth rates. Excepting 18 countries termed 'demographic outliers' by the UN) this process is taking place in every country and region across...
even as they are attempting to build their economies. Even wealthy Asian nations, such as Japan, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, also have very elderly populations and thus have to try to sustain their economies and society with small younger generations while caring for their elderly citizens. The elderly have been traditionally well-respected and well cared for in most Asian cultures; experts predict that younger generations in the future are less likely to be concerned and involved in the health care of their older relatives due to various factors such as women joining the workforce more, the separation of families because of urbanization or migration, and the proliferation of Western ideals such as individualism.
Australia
The health patterns found on the continent of AustraliaAustralia (continent)
Australia is the world's smallest continent, comprising the mainland of Australia and proximate islands including Tasmania, New Guinea, the Aru Islands and Raja Ampat Islands...
, which includes the Pacific Islands
Pacific Islands
The Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands are also sometimes collectively called Oceania, although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago....
, have been very much influenced by European colonization. While indigenous medicinal beliefs are not significantly prevalent in Australia, traditional ideas are still influential in the health care problems in many of the islands of the Pacific. The rapid urbanization
Urbanization
Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....
of Australia led to epidemics of typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
and the Bubonic plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
. Because of this, public health was professionalized beginning in the late 1870s in an effort to control these and other diseases. Since then Australia’s health system has evolved similarly to Western countries and the main cultural influence affecting health care are the political ideologies of the parties in control of the government.
Australian wine
The Australian Wine Industry is the fourth largest exporter of wine around the world, with 760 million litres a year to a large international export market and contributes $5.5 billion per annum to the nation's economy...
. The government has also waged a war on illegal drugs, particularly heroin, which in the 1950s became widely used as a pain reliever.
Experts believe that many of the History of the Pacific Islands
History of the Pacific Islands
History of the Pacific Islands covers the history of the islands in the Pacific Ocean.-Easter Island – Rapanui:Easter Island is one of the youngest inhabited territories on Earth, and for most of the History of Easter Island it was the most isolated inhabited territory on Earth...
health problems in the Pacific Islands can be traced to European colonization and the subsequent globalization and modernization of island communities. European colonization and late independence meant modernization but also slow economic growth, which had an enormous impact on health care, particularly on nutrition
Nutrition
Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
in the Pacific Islands. The end of colonization meant a loss of medical resources, and the fledgling independent governments could not afford to continue the health policies put in place by the colonial governments. Nutrition was changed radically, contributing to various other health problems. While more prosperous, urban areas could afford food, they chose poor diets, causing ‘overnourishment’, and leading to extremely high levels of obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Poorer rural communities, on the other hand, continue to suffer from malnutrition
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
and malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
.
Traditional diets in the Pacific are very low in fat, but since World War II there has been a significant increase in fat
Fat
Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...
and protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
in Pacific diets. Native attitudes towards weight contribute to the obesity problem. Tonga
Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...
n natives see obesity as a positive thing, especially in men. They also believe that women should do as little physical work as possible while the men provide for them, meaning they get very little exercise.
Europe
The largest endeavors to improve health across Europe is the World Health OrganizationWorld Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
European Region. The goal is to improve the health of poor and disadvantaged populations by promoting healthy lifestyles including environmental, economic, social and providing health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
. Overall health in Europe is very high compared to the rest of the world. The average life expectancy is around 78 in EU countries but there is a wide gap between Western and Eastern Europe. It is as low as 67 in Russia and 73 in the Balkan states. Europe is seeing an increase in the spread of HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe because of a worsening socioeconomic situation. Cardiovascular disease
Cardiovascular disease
Heart disease or cardiovascular disease are the class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels . While the term technically refers to any disease that affects the cardiovascular system , it is usually used to refer to those related to atherosclerosis...
, cancer and diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus, often simply referred to as diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced...
are more prevalent is Eastern Europe. The WHO
Who
Who may refer to:* Who , an English-language pronoun* who , a Unix command* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism- Art and entertainment :* Who? , a 1958 novel by Algis Budrys...
claims that poverty is the most important factor bringing on ill health across Europe. Those at low Socioeconomic status
Socioeconomic status
Socioeconomic status is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family’s economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education, and occupation...
levels and many young people are also at risk because of their increased tobacco, alcohol and drug abuse. Health and illness prevention in Europe is largely funded by governmental services including: regulating health care, insurance and social programs. The role of religion and traditional medicine however, is often left unexamined in such reports.
The study of hypertension
Hypertension
Hypertension or high blood pressure is a cardiac chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. What that means is that the heart is having to work harder than it should to pump the blood around the body. Blood pressure involves two measurements, systolic and...
within the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
has turned to examining the role that beliefs play in its diagnosis and treatment. Hypertension is an essential topic for study since it is linked to increased risk of stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
and coronary heart disease
Coronary heart disease
Coronary artery disease is the end result of the accumulation of atheromatous plaques within the walls of the coronary arteries that supply the myocardium with oxygen and nutrients. It is sometimes also called coronary heart disease...
. The most common treatment for hypertension is medication but compliance for this treatment plan is low. A study conducted in the UK examined the differences between 'white' patients and first generation immigrants from the West Indies. There were differing reasons for non-compliance that involve the patients perception and beliefs about the diagnosis
Diagnosis
Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of anything. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines with variations in the use of logics, analytics, and experience to determine the cause and effect relationships...
. Patients commonly believe that high levels of anxiety
Anxiety
Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...
when first diagnosed are the major cause and think that when stress levels decline so too will their hypertension. Other respondents in this UK based study had varying beliefs concerning the necessity of medication while others still argued that it was the side effects
Side Effects
Side Effects is an anthology of 17 comical short stories written by Woody Allen between 1975 and 1980, all but one of which were previously published in, variously, The New Republic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Kenyon Review. It includes Allen's 1978 O...
of medication that made them end their prescribed regiment. West Indian respondents whose lay culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
teaches them to reject long-term drug therapy opted instead for folk remedies in higher numbers than the 'white' respondents. What can be seen here is that some people will choose to ignore a doctor's expert advice and will employ 'lay consultation' instead.
Before people seek medical help they try to interpret the symptoms themselves and often consult people in their lives or use 'self-help' measures. A study of 'everyday illness' in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
including: influenza
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
, infections and musculo-skeletal problems focused on reasons for consulting medical experts and explanations of illness. These common illness were examined not because of their seriousness but because of their frequency. The researchers explain five possible triggers that people seek medical aid: 1- the occurrence of an interpersonal crisis 2- perceived interference with social and personal relations 3- perceived interference with vocational & physical activity 4- sanctioning by other people 5- sufferers ideas about how long certain complaints should last. These kind of explanatory models are part of the process that people use to construct medical culture. They give meaning to illness and health, answer questions about personal responsibility about health and most importantly are part of the dialogue between patients' and professionals' illness explanations. It can help explore why some patients will follow a doctors instructions to the letter and others ignore them completely. A patient's explanation or understanding of their illness can be much broader than a physician's and this dynamic has become a major criticism of modern medical practice since it normally excludes the "social, psychological and experiential dimensions of illness."
The Finnish study examined 127 patients and the results have been different from findings in other countries where there is more 'lay consultation'. Half of the respondents did not have any lay consultation before coming to the doctors office. One-third did not try any self-treatment and three-quarters of the sample consulted the doctor within three days of symptoms developing. Possible explanations are that in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
there is an aspect "over-protectiveness" within their health care system. Many might conclude that the Finnish people are dependent and helpless but the researchers of this study found that people chose to consult professionals because they trusted them over some lay explanation. These results echo similar studies in Ireland that explain this phenomenon as being based in a strong work ethic. Illness in these countries will affect their work and Finnish people will quickly get treatment so they can return to work. This research out of Finland also describes that this relationship between patient and doctor is based on:
- national and municipal administrative bureaucracies that demand more output and more satisfied patients
- the public demanding better care
- nurses criticizing physicians for not taking a holistic view of patients
- hospital specialists wanting better/earlier screening for serious illnesses (e.g. cancer).
The conflict between medical and lay worlds is prominent. On one hand many patients believe they are the expert of their own body and view the Doctor-patient relationship
Doctor-patient relationship
The doctor-patient relationship is central to the practice of healthcare and is essential for the delivery of high-quality health care in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. The doctor-patient relationship forms one of the foundations of contemporary medical ethics...
as authoritarian. These people will often use knowledge outside the medical field to deal with health and illness. Others see the doctor as the expert and are shy about describing their symptoms and therefore rely on the doctor for diagnosis and treatment.
North America
Life expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
of 75 years for males and 80 years for females. This leads to the conclusion that North America has cultivated a comparatively healthy society. As North America contains several core nations, the growing economies in those nations are able to maintain and develop medical institutions. This subsequently provides more access to health care for American citizens but health care is not universal. North America is known for being a leading nation in regards to industrialization and modernization, but the United States still lacks federal laws regarding health care as a right. This lag of health care security causes subsequent issues with pharmaceutical competition, lack of care for the elderly, and little attention to alternative medicine. Health care and education are plentiful at a price and illness still persists for many reasons. A main reason is that a lower- and middle-class population still exists in plentiful, maintaining a group that is highly vulnerable to physical ailment.
North America's primary risk factors
Risk factors
A risk factor is a concept in finance theory such as the CAPM, APT and other theories that use pricing kernels. In these models, the rate of return of an asset is a random variable whose realization in any time period is a linear combination of other random variables plus a disturbance term or...
for illness are currently alcohol abuse, malnutrition
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
, obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
, tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
use, and water sanitation. Obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
is a recent pandemics in North America. The 1990s brought a rise in the average Body Mass Index
Body mass index
The body mass index , or Quetelet index, is a heuristic proxy for human body fat based on an individual's weight and height. BMI does not actually measure the percentage of body fat. It was invented between 1830 and 1850 by the Belgian polymath Adolphe Quetelet during the course of developing...
, or BMI. From the beginning and to the end of the decade, the median percent of adults who were obese went from 12% to 20%. This may be because of the materialistic and individualistic character of North America. Alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
is the addiction of over-consumption of alcohol and is highly prevalent in the US. There are high incidence rates in many other world regions. Roughly 61% of American adults drank in 2007, and 21% of current drinkers consumed five or more drinks at one point in the last year. There have also been 22,073 alcohol induced deaths in the United States in the past year with about 13,000 of them related to liver disease. Alcoholism has many risk factors ingrained in North American culture, such as heredity, stress from competition or availability. The ideological individualism and the competitive capitalism may play a part in increased risk of alcohol abuse as well.
The Swine Flu
Swine flu
Swine influenza, also called pig influenza, swine flu, hog flu and pig flu, is an infection by any one of several types of swine influenza virus. Swine influenza virus or S-OIV is any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is endemic in pigs...
(also known as (H1N1) epidemic is a recent disease emerging in the early 21st century. Its origins were traced back to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, from where it rapidly infected the rest of North America. In April 2009, during the early days of the outbreak, a molecular biologist named Dr. Henry Miller wrote in the Wall Street Journal about New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
high-school students. These students apparently brought the virus back from Mexico and infected their classmates. All six cases so far reported in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
were connected directly or indirectly with travel to Mexico as well. Flu viruses can be directly transmitted (via droplets from sneezing or coughing) from pigs to people, and vice versa. These cross-species infections occur most commonly when people are close to large numbers of pigs, such as in barns, livestock exhibits at fairs, and slaughterhouses. The flu is transmissible from human to human, either directly or via contaminated surfaces."
South America
There is a laundry list of diseaseDisease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
s that affect South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
but, two of the major conditions are malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
and Hepatitis
Hepatitis
Hepatitis is a medical condition defined by the inflammation of the liver and characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. The name is from the Greek hepar , the root being hepat- , meaning liver, and suffix -itis, meaning "inflammation"...
D.
Malaria affects every country in South America except: Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
. The Falkland Islands
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
also are not affected by malaria. Elevation
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
has a key influence on areas where malaria is found. The disease is spread to person to person via mosquito
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
bites. People are typically bitten by mosquitoes in the dusk or dawn. Symptoms of this disorder are: high fever, chills, sweating, headaches, body aches, weakness, vomiting and diarrhea
Diarrhea
Diarrhea , also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having three or more loose or liquid bowel movements per day. It is a common cause of death in developing countries and the second most common cause of infant deaths worldwide. The loss of fluids through diarrhea can cause dehydration and...
. New symptoms can develop if malaria worsens; people that are infected may experience seizures, delirium and coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
. Severe cases may end in death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
. Malaria can be cured, but the symptoms may not become noticeable until months later. There are three forms of medication that will help cure Malaria. An infected person’s accessibility is dependent on if the person has the money or proper doctors to help them with the matter. Literature about Malaria treatment typically is focused toward people who are tourists. They have a more lighthearted tone because typically tourist have access to doctors so they can get the proper care to overcome the disease, however this does not account for the health of the natives.
The first sign of Hepatitis
Hepatitis
Hepatitis is a medical condition defined by the inflammation of the liver and characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. The name is from the Greek hepar , the root being hepat- , meaning liver, and suffix -itis, meaning "inflammation"...
D was detected in 1978 when a strange and unrecognizable internuclear antigen
Antigen
An antigen is a foreign molecule that, when introduced into the body, triggers the production of an antibody by the immune system. The immune system will then kill or neutralize the antigen that is recognized as a foreign and potentially harmful invader. These invaders can be molecules such as...
was discovered during a liver
Liver
The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
biopsy
Biopsy
A biopsy is a medical test involving sampling of cells or tissues for examination. It is the medical removal of tissue from a living subject to determine the presence or extent of a disease. The tissue is generally examined under a microscope by a pathologist, and can also be analyzed chemically...
of several Italians that suffered HBV infection. Scientists initially thought that it was an antigenic specificity of HBV, but they soon found that it was a protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
from another disease altogether. They called it "Hepatitis Delta Virus". This new virus was found to be defective. HDV needed HBV to act as a helper function in order for it to be detected. Normally Hepatitis B is transmitted through blood
Blood
Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
or any type of blood product. In South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
Hepatitis D was found to be fatal. Scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
s are still unsure in what way this disease was being transmitted throughout certain South American countries. Sexual contact and drug use
Recreational drug use
Recreational drug use is the use of a drug, usually psychoactive, with the intention of creating or enhancing recreational experience. Such use is controversial, however, often being considered to be also drug abuse, and it is often illegal...
are the most common means of transmission. HDV is still considered an unusual form of hepatitis. Agents of this virus resemble that of plant viroids. It is still hard to tell how many stereotypes exist because HDV is under the umbrella of HBV. HDV causes very high titers in the blood of people who are infected. Incubation of Hepatitis D typically lasts for thirty five days. Most often Hepatitis D is a co-infection with Hepatitis B or a super-infection with chronic hepatitis. In terms of super infections there are high mortality rates, ranging seventy to eighty percent; in contrast with co-infections which have a one to three percent mortality rate. There is little information with the ecology of Hepatitis D. Epidemics have been found in Venezuela, Peru, Columbia, and Brazil. People who are treated for Hepatitis B have been able to control Hepatitis D. People whom have chronic HDB will continue to get HDV.
Another disease that affects South America is HIV and AIDS. In 2008 roughly two million people had HIV and AIDS. By the end of 2008 one hundred and seventy thousand people were infected with AIDS and HIV. Seventy seven thousand people died from this disease by the end of that year. Brazil has the most people that are affected with AIDS and HIV in South America. Forty-three percent of people in Brazil have HIV. In Brazil sixty percent of the inhabitants use drugs, are HIV positive, and are HIV positive because of their drug use. Usually this disease is transmitted by either drug use involving needles or men having sex with other men unprotected. Unprotected sex between two men is the most common. Roughly twenty-five to thirty-three percent of these men also have sex with women and in turn infect them also. Sharing needles and being infected with HIV and AIDS is most common in Paraguay and Uruguay. South America is trying to get treatment to the thousands of people infected by this disease. Brazil is offering generic AIDS prescriptions that are much less expensive than the name brand drugs. One hundred and eighty-one thousand inhabitants in Brazil who were infected are being treated. That accounts for eighty percent of those who needed immediate help. This aid from the government has had positive results. Statistics show that there was a fifty percent decrease in mortality rates, approximately sixty to eighty percent decrease in morbidity rates and a seventy percent decrease in hospitalization of infected people.
In very remote areas of South America, traditional healers are the only forms of health care people have.
In north Aymara and south Mapuche where the indigenous groups have a strongest voices, they still heavily use traditional medicine. The government in Chile has implemented an Indigenous Health System to help strengthen the health care system. Even with Chile's indigenous groups, Chile still has the best public health services in South America. They also have the lowest mortality rates in the area. Their health care policies are centered around family and community well being by focusing on the strategies for prevention health strategies. Reports have shown an increase in mental health issues, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.
South America's economy is developing rapidly and has a great deal of industries. The major industry in South America are agriculture. Other industries are fishing, handicrafts, and natural resources. Its trade and import-export market is continually thriving. In the past South American countries moved slowly in regards to economic development. South America began to build its economy ever since World War II. South America's largest economies are Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Columbia. Venezuela, Peru, and Argentina's economy are growing very rapidly.
Further reading
- Nettleton, Sarah (2006). The Sociology of Health and Illness. Polity. ISBN 0745628281.
- Conrad, Peter (2008). The Sociology of Health and Illness: Critical Perspectives. Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 1-4292-0558-X.
- Porter, Dorothy (1999). Health, Civilization, and the state: a history of public health from ancient to modern times. New York NY: Routledge. ISBN 1-415-12244-9.
- White, Kevin (2002). An introduction to the sociology of health and illness. SAGE Publishing. ISBN 0-7619-6400-2.
See also
- Alternative medicineAlternative medicineAlternative medicine is any healing practice, "that does not fall within the realm of conventional medicine." It is based on historical or cultural traditions, rather than on scientific evidence....
- MedicalizationMedicalizationMedicalization is the process by which human conditions and problems come to be defined and treated as medical conditions and problems, and thus come under the authority of doctors and other health professionals to study, diagnose, prevent or treat...
- EpidemiologyEpidemiologyEpidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...