Emerging diseases, poverty and hunger

Dr. George Gorodner

special for coast

Poverty and hunger are concurrent elements of high importance for the spread of emerging diseases, and environmental change must be considered along with other factors such as ignorance, poverty, poor health and global warming, so that we find ourselves facing a complex problem. Can do Solution.

Malnutrition is an indicator of the magnitude of the problem. Initially due to poor nutrition, children are at a higher risk of suffering from infectious diseases as well as being underweight. They have high energy and protein requirement in the growth phase. And late, if they do not have them, a decrease in height and a delay in intellectual development appear, which mark their future development. Weight by age measures global malnutrition. Height for age indicates chronic malnutrition and weight for height indicates acute malnutrition. The consequences are poor muscle development, decreased IQ, infectious diseases in childhood, and an increased risk of chronic diseases in adulthood.

Malnutrition is mostly the result of poverty and it is the cause of malnutrition. The most vulnerable children are at higher risk of dying from diarrhoea, pneumonia and emerging diseases. Most of the underprivileged children are malnourished. Their future in adulthood is related to malnutrition at an early age and the subsequent development of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, diabetes and arterial hypertension. They will be adults with limited physical and intellectual abilities.

820 million children in the world suffer from hunger and 3 million children under the age of 5 die every year (UNICEF), of which 80% are in 20 countries. In the second semester of 2022 in Argentina, 39.2% of the population was below the poverty line, which reached 29.6% of households. (Indec) (Profil. Consulted 8/3/2023). 15.5% of children and adolescents suffer from food insecurity and two million children suffer from hunger (Doctors Without Borders. Consulted 8/3/2023). Infant mortality in children under 5 years of age presents a prevalence of 0.4%. This condition occurs largely in communities of indigenous peoples (Pato Pinta Foundation. – News. Accessed 8/1/2023). The most affected areas of the country are the northeast, northwest and the second circle of Buenos Aires suburbs

One of the important factors influencing emerging diseases and malnutrition is the inadequacy of basic sanitation services, such as drinking water and sewage. Another factor is the low level of maternal education. 10% included mothers from Argentina and 30% included mothers from the northeast of the country.

There is gravity in relation to health and the environment. Climate change affects health, especially in vulnerable ecological and social systems, generating changes in the epidemiological status of emerging diseases. Rising temperatures, changing precipitation regimes and climate change modify the geographic region with effects on the behavior of important vectors and/or transmitters of infectious disease.

Climate change combined with global warming and insufficient food supply has negative effects on nutrition and health, especially among the poor in some regions of the world, leading to an increase in the number of undernourished people, mainly in subtropical and tropical regions. Global warming increases the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts, affecting food shortages and increasing human vulnerability to emerging diseases.

As the world continues to warm, mosquito-borne diseases are raising concerns about their rapid prevalence, spread and invasiveness. To this should be added the action of man, changing the ecosystem, with large-scale actions, without taking into account the implementation of measures to protect the environment.

Underdeveloped countries are most vulnerable to climate change and emerging diseases, largely due to failures to implement sanitation measures. The products of these changes can move spatially with consequential risks to residents. It is believed that all the ecosystems of the world are interconnected. For this, priority should be given to social values, including decent housing and adequate food in quality and quantity; educational; cleanliness; environmental factors, and all other links participating in the complex that determine emerging diseases.

The resulting situation must be reversed through the continuous development of education, social welfare including balanced nutrition and health projects aimed at providing solutions to emerging disease problems for the benefit of the community and future generations.

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