http://gdb.voanews.eu/8CC41B2E-65D9-446E-9BBA-E8339D3E4300_mw800_s.jpg
As a young child, with my parents by my side, I suffered the affects of the disease Salmonella. As a young American child, living in a quarantined bubble, at a modern hospital as a result of touching raw chicken and putting my hands in my mouth-my parents were petrified. Now imagine I suffered from Salmonella, IN AFRICA, BUT an added variant has only added to the viciousness of the disease and modern medicine is far from being up to date within the territory I lived in: ""In sub-Saharan Africa, a new form of the germ emerged in the southeast of the continent 52 years ago, followed by a second wave, which came out of central Africa 17 years later, the researchers said in a new study published by the journal Nature Genetics." (AFP) Now imagine I was just to poor, or my mother had HIV, or my immune system had already been broken down by another disease or all of the above. Do you think I would be writing this very blog post you read today? I can honestly say I don't believe so. Unfortunately, the statistics only support what I've previously inferred.
A deadly version of an intestinal worm, (iNTS) is the variant causing a version of Salmonella to viciously mature and become ever more fatal (22-45% mortality rate). A "previously unrecognized epidemic", the disease is sweeping quickly across Sub-Saharan Africa and unfortunately, very little is known how to combat such a maturation of the disease. A large part of the problem, the disease tends to thwart anti-biotics at a strong rate making human defense beyond difficult. Even more troubling, the biological propensity to spread at high frequencies causes great concern among African dignitaries. Individuals in the medical community see (iNTS) as a real threat to African health beyond the already extreme health environment as a whole and the existing HIV epidemic.
A direct result of HIV, African individuals suffering from a depleted immune system can easily contract Salmonella coupled with the (iNTS) variant and in the event-have less of a chance to fight the aggressive disease compilation. Known as "human invasive non-Typhoidal Salmonella" by researchers, people in sub-Saharan Africa people are AT RISK. If you thought my parents were suffering, one can only imagine the position an African family is forced to suffer through with the impending doom of death highly probably hanging over ones head. Its in response to this disease: "the race is on to discover how NTS is actually transmitted in sub-Saharan Africa so that effective intervention strategies can be implemented" (red orbit).
Chris-
ReplyDeleteI think you do a nice job of integrating personal experience with a contemporary issue in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it would have been great to see more of analysis of the relationship between health and politics. How can we promote an effective solution?
Its in my personal opinion promoting an effective solution would have to come with help from an outside NGO or non state actor willing to come and spearhead the issue which, unfortunately, seems fairly unlikely especially with the prevalence of aids as such an issue. At the core of said disease, current conditions play an important role and it might be reasonable to spearhead such intervention through improving everyday conditions. Going further, I view curbing the spread of said variant which is plaguing the region at hand would play a large role in the overall well being of citizens of the nation state.
ReplyDelete