Malnutrition and Disease in India, Research Paper Example

India contains some of the world’s most densely populated areas and is home to some of the world’s poorest populations as well. Underdeveloped nations such as India are in need of economic assistance from developed nations in order to help them to improve the living conditions and situations of the most poor and vulnerable of their population.  In India, there are many who live in isolated and rural areas where they do not have access to information related to medical services or sanitation.  There is an epidemic of preventable and curable diseases that many children and adults die from every day.  These diseases are caused by a mixture of malnutrition and poor sanitation.  Programs funded by developed nations could help India’s poor to live happier and healthier lives by giving them access to better nutrition, proper medical care, and a better system of sewage treatment.  Action must be taken quickly, however.  The longer that people live in conditions where sanitation and disease is a problem, the more likely they are to get sick, dejected and depressed.  When the society becomes too ill and dejected, it is difficult for relief workers to improve the status of the health of the community.  The vast difference in economics between India and the western world has led to a situation in India where malnutrition from abject poverty has led to a high disease rate amongst its poorer population and where many infant deaths are caused by a lack of childhood vaccinations and inadequate sewage disposal.

There is a vast difference in economics between developed and underdeveloped countries.  India is a third world country with a very large population where there is a great inequality between the rich and the poor that is growing faster than ever.  In developed nations, there is a middle class and most of the population enjoys a life of relative comfort.  (Klass 2005).  The economic inequalities include access to healthcare and sanitation services like sewage treatment and disposal.  Western countries have centralized governmental bodies that have set up sanitation services that help to eliminate disease caused by germs from sewage and trash.  India, however, does not have the infrastructure in place to properly treat sewage and trash throughout the country.  (Klass 2005)  Western countries have had the economic advantage to implement a health care system for their populations.  In India, many are without adequate health care and lack even the basic information regarding sanitation and vaccinations.  This is due to a lack of funds that could be supplemented by developed nations.  In the article, “Building local research – development capacity for the prevention and cure of neglected diseases: the case of India”, analyses how health, economic development and external investments are needed to change the poverty that afflicts less developed countries such as India. (Kettler 2001)  There are many adults and children who die in India every day from diseases that are treatable and curable.  If proper funding was given to India to create a healthcare system, many deaths would be prevented by proper medication.  Funding could also help to implement sewage treatment facilities and create better public sanitation, which would help to prevent many of the diseases from occurring in the first place.

One of the biggest problems facing India is the problem of malnutrition.  Most people simply do not have enough to eat, and what they do have to eat, is of poor quality.  This leads to malnutrition, which makes the body more vulnerable to disease. India’s poor suffer from malnutrition due to abject poverty.  With external funding, India’s poor could be given the food they need to live a happy and healthy life.   Free from malnutrition, they would be less vulnerable to disease and death.  Malnutrition is a major risk factor that increases the person’s chance of acquiring infection diseases such as tuberculosis. (Klass 2005).  In addition, malnutrition in children will increase their chance of dying form curable diseases such as measles, pneumonia, and diarrhea. (Klass 2005).  Children in developed nations are not at as high of a risk to contract these diseases because they have been greatly reduced from the environment due to proper healthcare and sanitation.  There is no need for children in India to be dying form diseases that are curable. The technology is available in developed nations to eliminate diseases due to malnutrition and should be made available to underdeveloped nations.  In order to prevent the needless deaths of India’s children, external funding could be used to reduce the rate of malnutrition by feeding India’s hungry.

The primary cause of early childhood mortality is linked to inadequate sewage disposal and lack of vaccination.  Disease thrives on sewage, and when there is not a proper sewage disposal system in place, the sewage and disease vectors can contaminate the water and food supply.  India’s young are especially vulnerable due to the fact that many are already malnourished, making them more susceptible to disease.  Diseases that are practically eliminated, or at least rare, in young children in developed nations are killing children in India every day.  In addition, children in India are rarely given the opportunity receive vaccinations, which, if given, would help to eliminate many of the deadly childhood diseases in India.  The prevalence of disease in India is of a nature that is curable and preventable with modern medicine and technology.  With the right funding in place, India’s poor could be given access to modern healthcare, such as vaccinations and medications. By giving the poor population of India access to basic health standards that the developed nations enjoy, such as childhood vaccinations and medication, early childhood mortality could be greatly decreased.  (Klass 2005)  In addition, many of the deadly diseases in India are caused by inadequate sewage disposal which causes food and water contamination.  Disease is easily spread from one infected member to another through feces.  Without proper treatment, infected sewage can leech into ground water supplies, tainting both food supplies and water supplies.  Proper funding could provide each town with a proper sewage treatment plant, which would help to reduce the contamination of food and drinking water, thus lowering the rate of childhood mortality.

The extreme poverty that faces India has caused many of its population to become malnourished, leading to the incidence of deadly childhood diseases, especially amongst the young of India’s poorest populations.  Inadequate access to western medicine, such as vaccinations, has caused many children to die from childhood disease that are curable and preventable.  This situation could be resolved with proper funding from developed nations that would allow for the implantation of health and sanitary programs that would reduce the number of needless deaths due to issues relating from malnutrition and disease.  In developed nations people live healthy lives thanks to the government health programs that are designed to create a healthy and disease free population.  As well, health programs that include childhood vaccinations reduce the overall risk of disease and prevent outbreaks.  The sanitation systems in developed nations treat sewage and prevent it from contaminating water and food supplies.  If these programs were to be implemented in India it would have far reaching effects that would increase the longevity of that nation’s most at risk population.

References

Joseph, B. (2002). The prevalence of malnutrition in rural Karnataka: South India. Journal of Health population and Nutrition, 20(3), 239-250. Retrieved March 3, 2010, from frohttp://find.galegroup.com/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A212277491&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=edmo88243&version=1.0

Kenneth J. C. (1997). Human waste overwhelms India’s war on disease. ShopNet engineering. Retrieved March 03, 2010, from http://www.swopnet.com/engr/sanitation/India_sewers.html

Kettler, H. E., & Modi, R. (2001). Building local research – development capacity for the prevention and cure for neglected diseases: The case of India. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 79(8), 742-748. Retrieved March 4, 2010, from Kettlerhttp://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=5475600&site

Klass, P. (2005). India.  In S.D Scott, D. Perkins & E. Rothwell   (Eds.), Intersections: readings   in the science and humanities (2^nd ed., pp.101-105). Toronto: Pearson.