China is one of the largest developing countries in the world. It has a per capita output of less than 100 other nations. The countries gross domestic product lags behind at 107th. In 2004, nearly 100 million peasant farmers and 20 million city dwellers needed help from the Chinese government (Li Deshui, 2005). China is learning how to get to the GDP of other countries but their energy use to do that is very high causing their costs to be at a point creating poor profit margins. This is why China is still considered a developing country. It is beginning to find its way to the world front. This paper will discuss the health issues that China, as a developing country, has and what is being done about them. There will also be a review of Chinas present public health system.
Chinas Health Indicators
2001 statistics on China show that there is beginning to be a great change in what the health indicators for that country are. This frequently happens in developing countries. In 2001, the main problems were circulatory system disease, neoplasm, respiratory disease, injury, endocrine system disease, digestion tract disease, infectious disease, mental disease, genitourinary disease and nervous system disease. Today, the infectious disease is climbing up the list fast because of AIDS. China has changed many things about their world and some of those have increased drastically the number of AIDS cases in the country (Public Health, 2003).
The Imperial Chinese had very specific ways of looking at sex and most of those affect how the Chinese see sex today. The ancients believed in the yen and yang and your sexuality and reproduction were not the same thing. Homosexuality was a part of life and tolerated though it was not talked about. Since China has adopted the one child policy, premarital sex and extramarital sex has become everyday. Young people now believe that marriage is for love but that does not necessarily affect your sex life (Zhang, Li, Li, Beck, 1999). This unfortunately has led to a lot of promiscuous activity. This has caused heterosexual activity has become the most important route of HIV transmission in the country (Beck, 1999). That coupled with the migration of 120 million workers every year has tremendously increased the problem.
The issue of sex and the transmission of HIV in China is a complex one. It becomes even more complex when it is realized the vast difference between the interior and the coastal areas in the country. There are also the differences in the very crowded cities and the very rural country. There is a vast difference in how the young believe and how the older population believes All of this contributes to an increasing number of HIV related problems.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture needs to be talked about here, briefly. Acupuncture is a widespread method of treatment throughout China. Both HIV and HBV can and are transmitted through acupuncture needles. It is estimated that up to 60 of the population of China is infected with hepatitis B virus and increasing close to that many with HIV. HBV and HIV are not killed by the usual washing a drying techniques that are so often used. This is especially true in rural areas. Most of the areas, including the city presently use reusable needles though disposable needles have been available for some time (Reynolds, 2008).
Public Health in China
In 1998, the Shanghai CDC was developed and implemented. They have been functioning quite well since. However, it was evident from the SARS scare that they were not as prepared as they needed to be to solve the problems related to infection in the country of China (Liu, 2003). They discovered at that time, that the whole public health system was too centralized to be effective throughout the country. Not only that the system is very fragmented. Though public health is run by the local government, hospitals and clinics are owned and operated by other entities. This includes acupuncture salons and herbal treatment centers. Therefore there is very little governmental control on how the system works.
Implement a New System
It is fairly obvious that the present system of public health will not work in a country like China. The system that is designed here must take into consideration that a very large piece of the people of this country are mobile. They get all of their treatment at outlying clinics on their way to the next migrant job. Many of the others live in cities that are extremely overcrowded and contact is almost impossible to control.
This system will need to include a very large piece for education. Traveling physicians and nurse groups that go to migrant areas and carry not only treatment and diagnosis but education would work much better than what they are doing now. Sex education in all of the schools both city and rural is important. Changing attitude will probably not work but possibly promoting safe sex may help. There is also the issue of condoms and their use. This is a poor country. Free condoms may create a situation where more are using them.
Acupunture needles need to be replaced with disposable needles. The reason that needs to happen is that sterilizing cannot happen everywhere in this country. It might be prudent to give out free disposable acupuncture needles to people in this business like free syringes are given out to drug users in the United States.
Setting up a good public health system in China would be difficult. The differences in the parts of China make a big difference but mixing of old beliefs with those of the newer generations make it that much more difficult. The need for education and the migrant work so many people increase it even more. It however is possible with governmental and CDC support continuing. The need is to decentralize the system making it more available to those that actually need it.
Chinas Health Indicators
2001 statistics on China show that there is beginning to be a great change in what the health indicators for that country are. This frequently happens in developing countries. In 2001, the main problems were circulatory system disease, neoplasm, respiratory disease, injury, endocrine system disease, digestion tract disease, infectious disease, mental disease, genitourinary disease and nervous system disease. Today, the infectious disease is climbing up the list fast because of AIDS. China has changed many things about their world and some of those have increased drastically the number of AIDS cases in the country (Public Health, 2003).
The Imperial Chinese had very specific ways of looking at sex and most of those affect how the Chinese see sex today. The ancients believed in the yen and yang and your sexuality and reproduction were not the same thing. Homosexuality was a part of life and tolerated though it was not talked about. Since China has adopted the one child policy, premarital sex and extramarital sex has become everyday. Young people now believe that marriage is for love but that does not necessarily affect your sex life (Zhang, Li, Li, Beck, 1999). This unfortunately has led to a lot of promiscuous activity. This has caused heterosexual activity has become the most important route of HIV transmission in the country (Beck, 1999). That coupled with the migration of 120 million workers every year has tremendously increased the problem.
The issue of sex and the transmission of HIV in China is a complex one. It becomes even more complex when it is realized the vast difference between the interior and the coastal areas in the country. There are also the differences in the very crowded cities and the very rural country. There is a vast difference in how the young believe and how the older population believes All of this contributes to an increasing number of HIV related problems.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture needs to be talked about here, briefly. Acupuncture is a widespread method of treatment throughout China. Both HIV and HBV can and are transmitted through acupuncture needles. It is estimated that up to 60 of the population of China is infected with hepatitis B virus and increasing close to that many with HIV. HBV and HIV are not killed by the usual washing a drying techniques that are so often used. This is especially true in rural areas. Most of the areas, including the city presently use reusable needles though disposable needles have been available for some time (Reynolds, 2008).
Public Health in China
In 1998, the Shanghai CDC was developed and implemented. They have been functioning quite well since. However, it was evident from the SARS scare that they were not as prepared as they needed to be to solve the problems related to infection in the country of China (Liu, 2003). They discovered at that time, that the whole public health system was too centralized to be effective throughout the country. Not only that the system is very fragmented. Though public health is run by the local government, hospitals and clinics are owned and operated by other entities. This includes acupuncture salons and herbal treatment centers. Therefore there is very little governmental control on how the system works.
Implement a New System
It is fairly obvious that the present system of public health will not work in a country like China. The system that is designed here must take into consideration that a very large piece of the people of this country are mobile. They get all of their treatment at outlying clinics on their way to the next migrant job. Many of the others live in cities that are extremely overcrowded and contact is almost impossible to control.
This system will need to include a very large piece for education. Traveling physicians and nurse groups that go to migrant areas and carry not only treatment and diagnosis but education would work much better than what they are doing now. Sex education in all of the schools both city and rural is important. Changing attitude will probably not work but possibly promoting safe sex may help. There is also the issue of condoms and their use. This is a poor country. Free condoms may create a situation where more are using them.
Acupunture needles need to be replaced with disposable needles. The reason that needs to happen is that sterilizing cannot happen everywhere in this country. It might be prudent to give out free disposable acupuncture needles to people in this business like free syringes are given out to drug users in the United States.
Setting up a good public health system in China would be difficult. The differences in the parts of China make a big difference but mixing of old beliefs with those of the newer generations make it that much more difficult. The need for education and the migrant work so many people increase it even more. It however is possible with governmental and CDC support continuing. The need is to decentralize the system making it more available to those that actually need it.
No comments:
Post a Comment