MDGs: Reduce Child Mortality, Improve Maternal Health, Combat Diseases

This week we tackled quite a bit of information about the state of the world's health. What we learned is that someone's access to health services depends mostly on where he or she was born. Millions of people lack the basic necessities required for keeping them healthy: a doctor's office, affordable medicine, nutritious food, and sanitary living conditions. And as we discussed, this sad fact leads to lots of unnecessary suffering and death:

• Every minute, a woman with no medical care dies in pregnancy or childbirth
• Every hour, 300 people die of an AIDS-related illness
• Every day, 4,000 children die of diarrhea caused by dirty water

And those stats say nothing of the millions of children who die of malaria, or who are orphaned by their parents who died of AIDS. These stats don't tell us about children who never make it past the age of five because of lack of proper nutrients.

But that doesn't have to be the end of a very sad story -- this problem is big but it is not impossible to overcome! Things we take for granted, like a glass of clean water, like vaccines to protect us against deadly infections, are out of the reach for so many around the world. With a little effort by people and governments around the world, we can provide these resources for poor people. And there are several good reasons why we should feel responsible for seeing to it that this happens:

In the Universal Declaration of human rights, we are reminded that health is a human right:

Article 25 of UDHR states:

• Everyone has the right to health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and should be protected from suffering in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other circumstances beyond their control.
• Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance.

Do you agree that governments should be expected to provide all the services described in Article 25? Does the United States provide for services such as food, housing and medical care? Who are these services provided for in this country? Who pays for them? What makes it difficult for many governments (in poor countries) to ensure the health of their citizens? (You can share your thoughts on these discussion questions in the comments section below.)

World leaders also PROMISED to reduce suffering worldwide when deciding on the Millennium Development Goals. Acknowledging that the loss of human life to these preventable causes is a human rights violation, world leaders agreed to three goals in the MDGs that would increase access to healthcare for millions of people, and decrease the number of needless deaths. There are three health-related goals in the MDGs that aim to promote the health of everyone around the world, especially in poor countries :

• GOAL 4: Reduce child mortality.
  
• GOAL 5: Improve maternal health.
  
• GOAL 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other preventable diseases.

It is important to achieve these goals because disease, malnourishment and bad health destroy lives and reduces productivity and income. People who are sick cannot go to school or work, and cannot afford to buy food, medicine or health services that can help them get better. Investing in the health of citizens is a smart investment for countries to make. Healthy citizens mean a healthy workforce to contribute to the country's production and wealth.

So then, what is needed to achieve these goals?

Health care for all is a massive challenge, but an achievable one. What’s needed is the will, and the funding. Governments of developing countries must devote more money to their health services. And rich countries like the US must solidly support them.

• Primary Health Services: People everywhere should be able to get to a doctor's office, clinic or hospital to receive medical care. However, there is a lack of hospitals and trained medical professionals to provide these services.
  
• Access to Medicine: The poorest people in the world cannot afford needed drugs – despite promises from international organizations to make medicines affordable and available to all. Campaigns targeting governments and drugs companies work to ensure developing countries get cheaper and better medicines quickly.
• Improved access to water, sanitation and hygiene: Without access to clean water and sanitation, people are constantly exposed to infections and diseases. The effects of these problems are compounded by poor hygiene -- for example, not washing hands helps spread infection.
  
• Money: Millions of children die needlessly every year because of causes that can be prevented. With education, proper nutrition, and medical care, we could stop children dying for no reason. This takes money, but if everyone chipped in, the costs would be minimal.