This divide shows how things affect the spread of disease. Things like classism and racism can be seen in this division. In general, the countries in blue have lower poverty rates and the majority of the population is caucasian, while those in red have much higher poverty rates and have what are minorities in the United States as a majority of their population.
When reading through the book about Global Prevalence and Incidence for Selected STIs (chapter 7) I found that the prevalence of most STIs are found in the countries shows in red. For example, there was a total of 340 million global STIs in 1999; 151 million of those are found in South and Southeast Asia, which is shown in red above. That's close to half (44% to be exact) the total amount! Reasons are simply because they have few resources for treatment or prevention, no system of public health, and terrible environmental issues. Meanwhile, the US had a mere 14 million cases, which we consider a large number. However compared to 151 million, it's a very low number (less than 5% of the total cases).
Overall, the causes of STIs are similar. Classism and racism can also be seen in say the US itself as reasons to why people have STIs. Places like Africa and SE Asia just have them much more severe conditions. It's sad that these places are then labeled as "dirty" and people are stereotyped due to these factors. While people in the US still are highly stereotyped, I think people's perspective of places like Africa and SE Asia are much more stigmatized.
I find it amazing how statistics show not only where the vast amounts of STI's around the world are prevelent, but also how it directly refelcts the amount of money that each particular country puts into their health care system.
ReplyDeleteAlso, from reading ch. 7 as well, I found it mind boggling when I read about how the United States had around 14 million cases of STI's, but it wasn't evern compareable to the 151 million from the S.E. Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa! This is nothing but a prime example of the amount of money put into these countries health care systems.
I think your picture tells the whole story on this topic. It is really intresting to see the big divide that exists and how important economic status is in disease prevalance and treatment. Resources in third world countries are also very scarce and play a big role in disease prevention.
ReplyDeleteIt is also sad that less-priveleged people across the world can not help themselves in most cases when it comes to disease prevention.
I like how you pointed out there are other contributing factors to the spread of disease in addition to things like racism and gender differences. You pointed out that a lack of a public health system, fewer resources for prevention and treatment, and enormous environmental issues also play a role in the rapid spread of STI's in developing countries.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you pointed out that racism and stigmas affect how we view people with STI's in the United States, and not just other countries. I think social violence inside our own country is something we tend to forget when comparing the United States with other countries.
That was a really good explanation of the poverty divide between the poorer and the richer countries. I agree that poverty plays a major role in the amount of cases of STIs that we see which you did a good job pointing out. It was good that you showed the prevalence in South and Southeast Asia. You probably could have added Africa too and that would probably be an overwhelming proportion of the global population.
ReplyDeleteI think that in the U.S. the poverty divide is more obvious than you stated. Obviously it is worse in these other countries but if you look at the majority of cases of STIs in the U.S. it is pretty focused in the poorer areas of our country. This trend is spread pretty much around the global. Even in the rich countries there are areas of poverty that tend to also have more cases of STIs.
I think it is really sad that the people of SE Asia and Africa do recieve those stereo types. Many people don't understand that the availabilty of health care to them is not the same as ours here in the US. The spreading of the disease comes from lack of education. This is also something many people are unaware of .
ReplyDeleteA picture certainly is worth a thousand words. The use of the picture was a must. It is amazing to me how overwhelmingly poor the south is compared to the north. Unfortunately i do not believe there is anything we can do to change that.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of education contributes very heavily to the poverty rate. I believe that if more people were educated it would help to even out the divide.
The division of prevalence of STIs between the North and South is almost unfathomable until you see a picture like that.
ReplyDeleteSo many factors go into why that is, but definitely lack of education and resources to help eradicate or at least lower disease are two main ones, but also just the sheer amount of poverty in these countries is overwhelmingly depressing.
It is hard to believe that there is such a difference between the number of STI's in the US and SE Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. It is also hard to believe how uneducated the people are in those countries including the people running the country. They are at such a disadvantage when a leader they trust tells them that you can prevent STI's if you take a shower after sex.
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