Collapse causes diseases

Most disease in lower-income countries is caused by poverty A large proportion of illnesses in low-income countries are entirely avoidable or treatable with existing medicines or interventions. Most of the disease burden in low-income countries finds its roots in the consequences of poverty, such as poor nutrition, indoor air pollution and lack of access to proper sanitation and health education. The WHO estimates that diseases associated with poverty account for 45 per cent of the disease burden in the poorest countries. 10 However, nearly all of these deaths are either treatable with existing medicines or preventable in the first place. Continues… Wealth creation as a means to improve health Medicines also fail to reach the poor because of weak healthcare infrastructures, which are inherently the result of financial and human resource constraints. Malawi, for example, has the fewest doctors per capita in the world, with only one doctor for every 49,118 people. 39 Poverty often goes hand-in-hand with malnutrition, which again results in a host of debilitating but easily preventable diseases. Poor populations are often compelled to use animal dung, crop residues or wood to cook their food and heat their homes, which again results in a significant but ultimately avoidable disease burden. Poor sanitation, a by- product of poverty, results in a large number of deaths from diarrhoeal diseases. Poverty prevents those affected from purchasing the cheap oral rehydration therapy sachets that could easily save lives. When poverty is reduced and eliminated, health outcomes improve. People in rich countries can expect to live longer and have better access to medical care. With greater wealth, scientists and innovators, both private and public, have better opportunities to conduct research into health and disease. With increased financial resources, more can be spent on education and to improve literacy, which in turn can promote the adoption of new technologies and ensure that these technologies are more widely diffused. Improvements in agricultural technology, for example, have led to increased food production per capita and lower food prices, even at a time when the global population has risen dramatically. When combined with more open markets and trade, these productivity increases have ensured that food has become more available to the poor. As new technologies are adopted more widely, economic growth accelerates. This in turn provides individuals and the state with the means to improve basic infrastructure, such as the provision of clean water, which in turn improves health. Health and wealth can also be mutually reinforcing: a healthier population is better able to engage in economic activities and thereby generate increased income, some of which can be spent on health. In Mymensingh (Bangladesh), for example, agricultural yields increased by 15 per cent after malaria was controlled, because farmers had more time and energy for cultivation. 40 However, it is unlikely that good health will ever be sustained without long-term wealth creation that can pay for the ongoing improvements in water, sanitation, hospitals and medical research. Those who genuinely hope to improve the health of the world’s poorest people should therefore look to wealth creation as the fundamental solution to global health problems.