Human Rights Committee – Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages
- liloudinca
- 28 ago 2018
- Tempo di lettura: 4 min
Aggiornamento: 15 ago 2019
In order for all individuals to lead a healthy life, their life expectancy should be raised while also improving their standards of living. Child and maternal mortality should be significantly reduced, diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis due to the lack of clean water and sanitation should be minimized, and HIV/AIDS should impact less our societies. Unfortunately, this is still not happening because, while the situation is greatly improving, more than 6 million children die under age 5 each year, and only half of women in developing areas get the medical care they need to stay healthy. Furthermore, this issue should be solved not only for the current generations (from children to senior citizens) but also for the future generations who should be able to have good living conditions thanks to the health improvements we are carrying out nowadays.
THE LIFE OF CHILDREN
The first aspect of health and development is children’s well-being. In 2016, 5.6 million under the age of 5 died, which means that there have been 15000 precocious deaths every day. According to the World Health Organization, the main causes for these deaths are “birth complications, pneumonia, birth asphyxia, diarrhea and malaria”, which are all linked to health conditions issues. A child’s highest risk of death is in his / her first month of life, and 2.6 million children died in this short period of time in 2016, amounting to 46% of all under 5 child deaths. Actually, half of the deaths occur during the first day of life, while 75% happen during the first week after birth. This is because every mother and newborn should receive quality medical care to prevent illnesses that could put the child’s life at risk. Fortunately, the number of deaths has decreased from 5.1 million to 2.6 million in 26 years, but the decline has been quite slow, especially in Sub-Sharan Africa. In order to achieve the 3rd target of the Sustainable Development Goals about health and well-being, 52 countries would have to speed up the process of reduction of newborn’s mortality. This can be achieved by checking that mothers have a healthy lifestyle and receive good care before birth, stopping bad habits such as smoking or drinking, and protecting them from diseases. Moreover, at birth, health assistants should be available to check the functioning of all the baby’s vital functions and ensure their well-being (staying in a warm environment, touching them with clean hands…). If the newborn has illnesses and if they are not treated appropriately, their life could be seriously at risk and they could quickly die. Causes for premature death or serious diseases include: low birth weight (prevented through vaccinations) malnutrition (solved through adequate and substantial nutrition), non-breasted feeding (a solution is exclusive breastfeeding with antibiotics if necessary), poor access to water and sanitation (avoided with quality water and food), penurious hygiene practices that cause diarrhea (can be improved through adequate nutrition and zinc supplements), and malnutrition (prevent by intensifying vaccinations).
MATERNAL HEALTH
Maternal health – which is also connected to children – is about the well-being of women during pregnancy, giving birth and the postpartum period, when they are most vulnerable. In fact, due to infection, elevated blood pressure, risky abortion, complicated labor and hemorrhage, pregnant women and mothers can cause suffering, worse health and, eventually, death. About 830 women die daily from diseases linked to pregnancy or childbirth, 99% of which occur in developing countries where women live in rural areas with poor conditions. Furthermore, pregnant adolescents are the most affected by maternal mortality as it is harder for their bodies to endure giving birth. Women currently do not receive appropriate care due to poverty, distance from medical centers, lack of awareness, inappropriate services and cultural customs. Therefore, all of these factors should be solved.
Fortunately, 78% of receive skilled care before, during and after having a baby, and the number of maternal deaths has dropped of 45% from 1990 to 2015 (it is estimated that there were 30 300 deaths that year). Mortality linked to birth has also been halved in the region where it is highest – in Sub-Saharan Africa amongst others – where it is believed that the situation is continuously improving. In developing countries, the ration of mortality is 239 every 100 000 births, while in MDCs the ratio is 12 per 100 000, and the 3rd Sustainable Development Goals suggests the average drops to 70 per 100 000, and that no nations should have “a higher maternal mortality rate of more than twice of the global average”.
STATISTICS AROUND THE WORLD
As shown by the data, child mortality is mainly an issue for developing regions, especially in Africa where the number of deaths per 1000 births is above 100 for some countries. In fact, although there have been some improvements in these regions, child mortality is still way to high for it to be acceptable.
The chart represents life expectancy in developing regions. As we can observe, Africa is the continent where life expectancy is the lowest, although its average expectancy is increasing rapidly.
There are positive aspects about medical care in every continent, although we can also notice that the lowest government expenditure on health is in Sierra Leone – a developing country – where it is 6,5% compared to the world average of 26,1%. This means there needs to be particular focus on budget expenditure and improvement of medical infrastructures and material in this area.
We can notice the same trend between maternal and child mortality per region, as Africa is also the continent where there is the highest rate of maternal mortality, particularly in Sub-Saharan Arica.
LINK TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Suring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages means achieving Goal n°3 of the SDGs. In fact, this is the main focus of this target, which also aims at “increasing access to clean water and sanitation, reducing malaria, tuberculosis, polio and the spread of HIV/AIDS”. Thus, an effective solution to the problem will allow the fulfilment of goals n°3, n°1 and n°2 (there will be less poverty and less hunger), n°6 (clean water and sanitation), and n°8 (economic growth).
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