VWB Blog Did you know that almost 6 million people die every year in developing countries? Are you wondering if it is possible to provide better health care in these developing countries to help keep the death toll rates lower?
If so, you’re in the right place. We have put together this guide to share how developing countries can level up their current health care system. This means that fewer people are suffering and dying.
Read on to learn more about improving healthcare in developing countries.
Education
One way health can be improved is through educating its citizens. Education helps people take preventative healthcare measures. It also increases health literacy and helps people avoid risky health behaviors.
Education can make a huge difference for women living in developing countries. For example, many deaths in developing countries occur during the first 5 years of life. This is because women don’t have enough knowledge about keeping babies safe.
Girls entering puberty in these countries also face challenges. They don’t have knowledge on family planning. This lack of knowledge leads to having babies prematurely. It also leads to unhealthy kids because they don’t know how to best care for their young.
Clean Water
Another way to improve health care is to create access to safe drinking water. Research shows that 1 child dies every 21 seconds from a water-related disease.
Most of these countries have limited water supply. People have to walk miles in less-than-perfect conditions to reach some type of water.
After walking miles with no shoes, usually, the water collected is not good. It tends to be filled with dangerous bacteria that can harm or even cause death. Plus it is almost always filled with dirt.
In fact, the UNICEF/WHO report found that 159 million people get their water from unsafe surface sources.
Increasing Health Benefits
Because of fewer resources and money, poorer countries receive fewer health benefits. This is in comparison to richer and more developed countries. The reason is that they can’t afford the cost of vaccines, medicine, and treatments.
Countries with access to more resources can help identify the countries that are in need. Then contribute via different programs to help. They can help with things as simple as vaccines or clean water to drink.
Also, an investment approach from other countries with more resources can be useful in providing those less fortunate with treatments and drugs to increase their health.
Promoting Essential Healthcare
If governments in better-off locations get involved with providing cost-effective health packages for those in less fortunate countries, this can help save lives. A great example of providing overseas aid is Ethiopia and Malawi.
Those 2 governments have come together. They are focused on achieving universal vaccine coverage, better sanitation practices, and cleaner water supplies. By working as a team, they can combine their resources and voice to make a bigger impact in health care.
Another example is the United Nations. The U.N. has agreed to go after universal healthcare by the year 2030. The goal is for everyone around the world to have quality medications, safe prescriptions, and effective medicine.
If availability becomes universal, then all the resources for healthcare can be given to the primary-level facilities. Then, these primary facilities can distribute medicines as needed. Also, they can ensure that there are always doctors and nurses available to care for the sick.
Providing Cheaper Drugs
Prescription medications bring profits to pharmaceutical companies. Because of this, it would be helpful if the World Trade Organization (WTO) would put the right to life before the right to Corporate Profit in place.
Western Pharmaceutical companies manufacture life-changing medications. Once they create them they patent them and sell them for a major profit.
Eventually, other companies make their own version and copies of these drugs. The problem is that the WTO will not allow those companies to sell their cheaper copies until the original patent has expired.
Unfortunately, it can take several years for the patent to run out. By then plenty of people in other countries have passed away due to a lack of drugs and health care that they can afford. So providing these cheaper drug copies to developing countries can truly save lives.
Nutrition and Food Security
Just having access to food will make a difference in people’s health in a developing country. Community members can come together and address these issues. Mainly issues like malnutrition, scarcity of food, and lack of access to vegetables and fruits.
Educating people on what they should be eating will come a long way. People in developing countries sometimes lack the knowledge of how to have a well-balanced diet. This can lead to disease and higher mortality rates.
These community members can also reach out to organizations in more developed countries. They can ask if there is any sort of help available to their communities.
Agriculture Improvements
Underlying issues such as low crop yields, lack of irrigation, and low animal care can all lead to lower health care. Addressing these issues and improving agriculture in a developing country can help thousands. More people can live longer and healthier lives.
Modernized agricultural practices can help resolve both nutrition and household income for many people. More developed countries can come together and offer less developed countries classes. These trainings can show them how to improve their current agriculture methods.
Housing Infrastructure
Improving how people within a community live is another way to improve health care. Having inadequate roofing can create havoc and lead to people getting sick. Inadequate roofing can also lead to health concerns such as mold growth, algae, etc.
Also, poor canal systems or poor drainage in a home will cause health issues. Unsafe or even deteriorating roads in a community will affect everyone.
It is essential for these countries to have homes equipped with practical necessities and basic hygienic needs.
More Health Care Workers
Thanks to shortages in health care workers, developing countries are suffering. This has led to a lack of both curative and preventative health care services.
Countries with access to more health care workers can find volunteers to go work in these countries. They can help them increase their preventative care.
Also, countries with more resources can offer training courses. They can train more people to become nurses, doctors, nutritionists, dietitians, or have some type of role in the health care industry.
The more people trained in the medical industry the easier the more people will have access to their health concerns.
Improving Sanitation
Another major change in developing countries that can help improve health care is improving the sanitation process. This means installing flushing toilets so that people can always have a way to properly get rid of their unsanitary excrement.
Building a sewage system will also improve sanitation. This allows people to properly wash their hands, use the restroom, and take showers. These projects will require help from organizations, and even governments from better-off locations can contribute to these changes.
Why Is Health Care Important in Other Countries?
Helping other humans improve their health to live longer should be a concern for other people and other countries. This is not only an ethical issue. It is also a necessity for the long-term development of societies and economies coming together.
Having good health will improve people’s well-being. This will lead to healthier and more productive people in society. These people can be a great contribution to making changes and creating world-changing inventions if they are in good health.
Shortcomings in Lower-Income Countries
The World Health Organization (WHO) came up with the top shortcomings around healthcare availability in lower-income countries. The top shortcomings include:
- Unsustainable waiting times in a hospital
- Unsustainable waiting times for proper medications
- Shortage of medicine, equipment, and trained healthcare workers
- Variable quality of medical aids
- Limited opening hours in hospitals
- High absenteeism from trained staff
- Poor referrals
- Late referrals
- Inadequate health information for patients
On top of these shortcomings, lower-income countries or developing countries do not have the proper integration of health strategies in place at neither the local nor regional level. This means that when someone gets sick, and they need to see a specialist, this lack of cohesiveness usually ends up in disastrous results.
Challenges
One of the main challenges that developing countries face when providing adequate health care is the cost. They struggle on finding a balance between the quality of services that are offered and the service options offered.
Although, they have a budget allocated for health care the quality of the service is affected because of the low budgets they have. Usually, their budgets are not enough to help those dealing with chronic and infectious diseases.
Another challenge that developing countries face is that the perception of healthcare staff is not good. Most workers are unhappy and lack the motivation needed to help sick patients. This leads to poor service and little to no help to those that are sick.
Digital Future in the Health Care World
Thanks to technology, the potential game-changer for health care includes the opportunities that digital technology is now offering. For example, digital technology can help bridge the health care gap through tablet and phone apps.
This can allow someone in a developing country to connect with a medical professional anywhere around the world. A doctor can answer their questions and send the proper prescriptions to their local pharmacy. They can also diagnose certain conditions and give professional medical advice on how to improve their situation either by a lifestyle change or through better nutrition.
Digital technology can be the wave of the future because the reality of remote diagnostics and even emergency admissions is a lot more conceivable since it is already being done in developed countries. More people are opting to see their primary physician via a telehealth call than ever before because they prefer saving time and having less contact with sick people in a doctor’s office or hospital.
Gathering data via technology can also help predict outbreaks in developing countries and help limit them. Because more people around the world (even in developing countries) now have more access to a smartphone, none of these ideas sound very far-fetched. It is more of a matter of implementing and coming to an agreement between developed and undeveloped countries on how to move forward with using technology to help.
Advocacy
Advocacy will help generate public demand to put health issues high on the public agenda around the world. Influential policy-makers, political leaders, and elected representatives can be reached if enough people come together to advocate for others in less fortunate countries.
The key to advocacy is to cause these influential people to see the needs and demands of people in these developing countries. If they can begin to see that society has to come together as a whole to make this possible, it will create waves of change for people all around the world.
Ready to Contribute to Better Health Care in Developing Countries?
As you can see, there are ways to implement better health care in developing countries. The main thing is for a country to put its resources together to start rebuilding its healthcare system. Working together is another way to ensure that more people are receiving the adequate health care they not only need but also deserve.
Did our guide expand your knowledge today? If so, please continue browsing our health section to catch our latest helpful guides. We’ve got tons of great content you won’t want to miss.