Child Health Care in Bolivia

Child Health Care in Bolivia-Introduction
Child Healthcare problem is a great issue not only to Bolivia in Latin America but also across the world. However, the problem of maternal and child mortality are seriously alarming in Bolivia. In this regard, the government of Bolivia in partnership with the international community has been working hard to reduce the situation of health care problem among the children population in Bolivia.

In this regard, the government of Bolivia has put down a number of strategies and plans to ensure that they address the problem of health care problem among the children. This paper takes a critical and a comprehensive analysis of child health care analysis in Bolivia and further examines the challenges as well as the government intervention. According to Ref, “despite improvements in key indicators over the last 20 years, Bolivia still has the second worst health indicators in Latin America”. In addition, maternal and infant mortality is widely rampant a cross the region in Bolivia.

Bad Aspect of Child Health Care

The high mortality rate among the young children is one of greatest challenge which face health care provision sector in Bolivia. This is because child mortality as well as infant mortality rate is high in the country. Children are the future of any nation and the economic development normally rest on good health care among a population.

Healthy population is innovative and industrious in achieving economic development goals in a nation and therefore child health care problem in Bolivia pose a great economic problem which in turn perpetuate poverty among the people. This child health care problem has been precipitated by high poverty prevalence among the people in Bolivia. Furthermore, the adult population is equally at risk due to lack of available and affordability health care facilities.

Available literatures, medical reports, and number of personal documentaries abide to the fact that these medical complications (stroke, obesity, cancer, diabetes, and arthritis) remain the most expensive to manage. This therefore point to the fact an average citizen cannot to afford to purchase health care requirements to handle and manage these diseases. In addition to the above, the cost of maintaining these diseases always soar up due to the fact they affect one over a long period of time. The federal government has no choice but to act and provide health care so that we record improvement in our life expectancy levels.  The challenge of combining all these with the global health policy is therefore very poignant.

Good Aspect of Child Health Care in Bolivia

There is hope in a dressing the issue of health care problem and infant mortality. This is because the government of Bolivia and the international community has put a number of strategies, plans and goals in addressing the issue. These include; pre-natal and post natal care, food security, education on breast feeding, vaccination, cleanliness among other interventions. Vaccination continues to play a critical role in infant mortality rate reduction in Bolivia and therefore it is prudent for the government and the international community to continue the war against infant mortality not only in Bolivia but also across the world.
Bolivia Child Health Care in the Resent Past

Two-thirds of Bolivia’s people, majority whom are subsistence farmers, live in abject poverty. Infant mortality is rampant and represents more than half of child deaths under the age of 5. On average, of the 255,000 infants born each year in Bolivia, 7,000 die in their first month of life, and another 7,000 do not survive their first year. Some 13 percent of adolescent girls are pregnant or have already had children, and an increase in sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, is cause for growing concern in Bolivia. Toward this, the situation of child health care has been worse in the resent past. However, the government has done a lot in terms of universal and free vaccination of children, mother education on breast feeding, cleanliness and disease prevention.

  Government Intervention in child health care

The government of Bolivia in conjunction with its partners has put child health care one of its top priority and in this regard, a number of non-governmental organization have intensified their operation in Bolivia. The government and these organization run programs such as; Health: Save the Children implements simple, low-cost measures to keep newborns alive and healthy, including “clean delivery” practices and promoting exclusive breastfeeding.

In collaboration with Save the Children, the Bolivian Ministry of Health and Sports has developed a strategy to reduce newborn deaths. School-age children benefit from our School Health and Nutrition programs, which distribute micronutrients to girls and boys, provide first aid kits for classrooms, screen children for vision and hearing impairments and train teachers and parents in basic health issues

Effect of Poverty on Health Care in Bolivia

Poverty has got negative impact to human health as well as economic development. Economic development of a nation determines greatly the availability of health care facilities. In Bolivia, majority of the population consist of subsistence farmers. Subsistence farming has got low yield due to its nature and lack of proper farming inputs.

Towards this, poverty is prevalence among the majority of Bolivia citizens. To ensure that there is healthy citizen in a nation; the people should eat well, access medical facilities as well as be given a proper medical insurance. It is prudent to note that all these facilities require a vibrant economy coupled with low poverty prevalence in a country. In this regard, Bolivia as a developing country faces the challenges of poverty. This has precipitated the infant mortality rate in the country hence poor child health care in the country.

                 Key Issues Facing Global Health

Global Health Education Consortium (2010, p.1) in their article - “why Global Health? illustrate that “drug resistant infectious diseases, natural and humanitarian crises, malnutrition and contaminated foods, toxic substances, biological and chemical terrorism and weak, inefficient or dysfunctional health systems; realities like these are affecting the health of people all over the world”.

The human race demands quality health no matter where they live on this globe and this depends largely on how the health issues are managed. This fact points at globalization and its role in the demand for a global heath system. In addition to the above, travel and immigration, globalization of trade, urbanization, aging and chronic diseases and inadequate public health infrastructure in the world form the key issues behind the need for a global health system.

Diseases that were traditionally under control have become more complex to mange and control and the number of deaths recorded in the world are increasing by the day. Cholera, malaria, tuberculosis and yellow fever have contributed to a number of deaths and have been able to spread to regions that had never experienced such diseases such as the United States.  In addition to the above, “Avian flu is spreading on the wings of migrating birds and the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to wreak havoc, primarily in the poorest countries of the world in that the more disease spreads unchecked in resource poor regions of the world, the higher the risk to travelers” (Global Health Education Consortium ,2010, p.1).

The today’s environment that is dominated by capitalism, free trade and inability to regulate trade has put the lives of millions of residents in danger of contacting dangerous diseases such as HIV and AIDS. This is because human beings have better opportunities to socialize and interact in the courses of their trade activities. Furthermore, the threats from waterborne bacteria, pesticides and military arsenals are ever on the increase. Around three billion people – virtually half of the world’s total population now live in urban settlements (Cohen, 2005, p.1).  This has put pressure on the existing public health care system and provided the breeding grounds for epidemics.

                     Conclusion
Children are the future of humankind and there survival is inevitable. In this regard, it is prudent to note that health care is one of most important thing in human life and therefore governments and all stakeholders should strive to ensure that all human kind irrespective of color, race, deed, religion and place of origin access proper health care facilities and adequate attention. A country such Bolivia should be given a special helps in all sectors to ensure that its medical health care facilities meet the immense demand in the country. In addition, there is need to control the global population and further develop an effective global health policy that takes into consideration the fact that developing nations can no longer afford to depend on medical aid to achieve better health for their citizens but also need to be fully empowered.


                      Cited Works

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