Examining Disease Burdens
Examine the burden of disease in low-income or middle-income country. Papers should be 3-5 pages, double-spaced and with one-inch margins and in twelve-point font. Be sure to use page numbers and include your name on each page. Your annotated bibliography should be included as page 6.
The goals of this assignment are:
1. To become familiar with online sources for global health data.
2. To become familiar with the disease profile of a low-income or a middle-income country.
3. To review how disease burdens have shifted over the past 10-15 years in your selected country.
4. To examine the epidemiologic transition in your selected country.
5. To practice identifying a health issue of national importance that merits increased funding or additional interventions.
Select a low-income country OR a middle-income country to study and address the following issues:
• What are the leading causes of death and morbidity in this country?
• Has the disease burden shifted significantly over the past 10-15 years? If so, how and why?
• What is the relative burden of communicable vs. non-communicable diseases? What does this tell you about the country’s epidemiological transition?
• How would you describe the health system in this country? What is its major source of financing? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this type of system?
• If you had to make the case for addressing a single health issue in your country, what would it be? You may justify your issue by using DALYs, arguments about cost-effectiveness, improving equity, etc., but be sure to provide a rationale for your health priority.
Sample Solution
For this discussion, the selected low-income country is South Africa.
The leading causes of death and morbidity in South Africa are HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), lower respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, stroke, diabetes mellitus and cancer (WHO 2020). HIV/AIDS remains the number one cause of death as well as a major burden on the healthcare system due to its chronic nature; TB is also high up on the list due to its prevalence among both adults and children. Lower respiratory infections tend to be more common during winter months while diarrheal diseases are most commonly seen in young children with poor sanitary conditions. Stroke and diabetes mellitus have been increasing over the years largely attributed to lifestyle factors such as smoking or unhealthy diets while cancer rates have remained relatively stable with slight increases in particular types such as breast cancer (WHO 2020).
Over the past 10-15 years there has been a shift in disease burden from communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS or TB towards noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) like stroke, heart disease & diabetes owing largely to changes in lifestyle choices by many individuals within society including increased smoking & alcohol consumption coupled with lack of physical activity & poor nutrition habits. This has led to an overall increase in NCDs compared with communicable ones causing them to become a greater public health concern for authorities since they require long-term treatment which can be expensive & difficult to manage effectively (Mukoma et al., 2021).