Global Child Health And Healthcare Issues

By Author: Misty Spencer
Total Articles: 1
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Children have always presented one of the most precious and vulnerable categories of the world’s population that exists in permanent need of high-quality care. Healthcare is one of the most significant fields for young generation, since it ensures proper physiological development and protects children from various diseases. Nowadays developed countries have successfully managed the problem of delivering proper healthcare for children, while in poor countries it remains to be an urgent issue. Today more than 22 thousand children die every day, and the majority of these children are residents of poor countries. Global healthcare community takes active steps to lower the death rate among children by conducting specific educational programs, organizing healthcare operations, supporting medical volunteering, and implementing regulatory strategies. This article provides an overview of the modern state of child healthcare as a global issue and includes a description of its major initiatives and regulations given by the experts on https://essaywritingstore.com/write-my-case-brief.
Historical Perspectives on Global Child Health
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... Global Health Organization, which was founded in 1946, became the central regulatory institution that introduced policies related to child protection. It established necessary strategies for solving such issues as regional epidemics, health issues derived from natural disasters, malnutrition, and other problems related to children’s welfare around the globe. Major aims and goals in the sector of child healthcare were determined during the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit that was conducted in 2010. They were broadly defined and included a necessity to fight with hunger and poverty as well as to provide access to proper health care. Now these aims are being implemented into life by means of hard work of various organizations. Nowadays, apart from WHO, a significant role in child care is played by United Nations Children's Fund. Being supported by global community, it has been created a number of healthcare organizations that act on a cross-country level in specific regions. For example, the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP) plays a significant role in African region in terms of vaccination and medicine supply. All the organizations work hard to raise global awareness of child healthcare issues and receive a greater support.
In the 21st century there has been noticed a significant improvement in the health care. Unfortunately positive changes are observed only in the countries with progressive medicine. The statistics show that more than 22,000 children under 5 years old die every day. More than 90% of these children come from poor countries located in African and Asian regions. Major health problems, detected among this vulnerable social group, include pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, measles, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and injuries. These diseases become the main reason of child mortality in developing countries, which still lack proper healthcare specialists, equipment and medicaments.
Since global child healthcare issues are extremely topical and require sufficient human resources to be solved, they should be of the central concern in preparation of the new healthcare professionals. Nowadays the topics of global healthcare and, especially, child care are only going to be included in the studying process as special courses and trainings, dedicated to global healthcare issues and methods of working in extreme conditions. The article Development and Evaluation of Global Child Health Educational Modules indicates the necessity to change the focus of training programs, which are currently based on domestic issues, and describes a course, dedicated to the topic of global child health (GCH). There was introduced a four-module course on the basis of pediatrics department and it included the following headings: Global Child Mortality; Undernutrition; Fever in the Returning Child Traveler; and Refugee and Immigrant Health. Interviews that were conducted before, during, and after the course have demonstrated a low awareness of the global health issues, because 60% of participants stated that they had no prior experience or knowledge, related to the topic. More than 40% of students finished the entire 4-module course that demonstrates their interest in the topic. A high level of unawareness and a relatively high percentage of people, who showed interest, prove the lack of proper training and a necessity to involve GCH in the curriculum of healthcare educational institutions.
Regulatory Guidelines and Challenges
The issues of child health care and mortality are addressed under the guideline of a set of global regulatory strategies and initiatives. The article, entitled The Grand Challenges of the Gates Foundation: What Impact on Global Child Health?, reports about a significant role of the following initiatives: Integrated Management of Child Diseases created by the WHO and UNICEF, the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, and the Bellagio Study Group’s assessment of the current state of global child survival in the developing world. IMCI developed a strategy for improving healthcare delivery and suggested steps for preventing diseases at the household level. It also elaborated an innovative training program for healthcare workers that would enable them to gain both theoretical knowledge and practical experience. The authors also identified major challenges in the child healthcare, which are to be solved by means of the designed guideline. They included the development of childhood vaccination by creating single dose vaccines as well as improving already existent vaccines against such wide-spread diseases as tuberculosis and malaria.
Healthcare Productivity and Economic Costs
As it was already indicated, nowadays there exist many organizations that conduct child healthcare operations and activities on a global scale. One of the most recent and influential organizations is entitled “Every Woman, Every Child”. It works to protect both children and mothers and represents itself in an unprecedented global movement that mobilizes and intensifies international and national action by governments, multilaterals, the private sector and civil society. Being launched in 2010 during the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit, this campaign unites representatives of more than 70 governments and has reported to create more than 250 healthcare organizations around the globe. During the first year of its existence its financial support constituted nearly 60 billion dollars that has already enabled it to save millions of children.
Another actively working organization that has already made a great contribution to the reduction of child mortality rate is known as the global vaccine initiative or GAVI. Being created in 2000, this organization aimed at providing equal access to necessary vaccines for children from developing countries. With the first donation of 750 million dollars and collaborative efforts of “UN agencies, governments, the vaccine industry, private sector and civil society” it has directed all its forces to the countries of African region. During the first five years of its existence the organization has managed to deliver vaccines to 70 countries and immunized more than 10 million children.
Financial support of the healthcare missions in developing countries is organized on a global level by United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World’s Bank. Many organizations receive investments from various corporations and charity funds. However, there are significant financial gaps in funding, which prevent global communities from reaching their goals in the child healthcare sphere. For example, nowadays GAVI’s activities have been considerably reduced due to a financial gap of nearly 5 billion dollars. Another organization that works on a global level in order to overcome the problem of measles, namely the Measles Initiative, reported about the lack of almost 300 million dollars, needed to deliver medicine to poor countries.
In conclusion, the delivery of proper child healthcare on a global level remains one of the most urgent issues. Despite of the active work under the guidance of such initiatives as Every Woman, Every Child, GAVI or UNICEF, there is still observed a high level of child mortality. Healthcare sphere in developing countries lacks proper specialists and financial support. Hence, a proper level of the global child healthcare can be attained through involvement of more funds, collaboration between different spheres and organizations, as well as preparation of healthcare professionals, who would be aware of the peculiarities of global tasks and mechanisms to accomplish them.