Emerging diseases, poverty and hunger

Dr. Jorge Gorodner

especially for the coast

n While poverty and hunger are important contributors to the prevalence of emerging diseases, other factors such as ignorance, poverty, poor health, and environmental changes due to global warming must also be considered in order to find solutions to a complex problem we face.

Malnutrition is an indicator of the extent of the problem. Initially due to malnutrition, children lose weight and are at high risk of infectious diseases. During the growth phase, they need a lot of energy and protein. At a later stage, if they don’t have these, there are height deficits and mental retardation that mark their future development. Weight for age measures global malnutrition. Height-for-age indicates chronic malnutrition and weight-for-height indicates acute malnutrition. The consequences are poor muscle development, lower IQs, and an increased risk of infectious diseases in childhood and chronic disease in adulthood.

Malnutrition is primarily a consequence of poverty, as well as a cause of malnutrition. The most vulnerable children are at high risk of dying from diarrhoea, pneumonia and emerging diseases. Most poor children are malnourished. Their adult futures are associated with malnutrition in early life and subsequent chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, diabetes and arterial hypertension. They will be adults with limited physical and mental strength.

Globally, 820 million children suffer from hunger and 3 million children under the age of 5 die each year (UNICEF), 80% of which are in 20 countries. In the second half of 2022, 39.2% of Argentina’s population will live below the poverty line, reaching 29.6% of households. (Indec) (Personal Data. Consulted 8/3/2023). 15.5% of children and adolescents face food insecurity and 2 million children suffer from hunger (Médecins Sans Frontières. Consultation 3 August 2023). The infant mortality rate for children under 5 years old is 0.4%. This situation is more common among indigenous peoples’ communities (Pato Pinta Foundation. – Press. Date accessed: 1 August 2023).The worst-hit areas of the country are the second cordon in the northeast, northwest and the suburbs of Buenos Aires

One of the important factors affecting emerging diseases and malnutrition is the inadequacy of basic sanitation services such as drinking water and sewage. Another factor is the low level of education of mothers. Ten percent were Argentine mothers, with 30 percent from the north-east of the country.

There is a gravitational relationship between health and the environment. Climate change affects health, especially fragile ecological and social systems, leading to changes in the epidemiology of emerging diseases. Increased temperatures, changes in rainfall, and climate change alter geographic regions and affect the behavior of important vectors and/or transmitters of infectious diseases.

Climate change due to global warming and food inadequacy negatively impacts nutrition and health, especially on poor people in certain parts of the world, leading to an increase in the number of undernourished people mainly in subtropical and tropical regions. Global warming increases the frequency and extent of floods and droughts, leading to food shortages and increasing human vulnerability to emerging diseases.

With global warming, the rapid spread, transmission, and invasiveness of mosquito-borne diseases are of concern. To this must be added the enormous human impact on the ecosystem, regardless of measures taken to protect the environment.

Less developed countries are most vulnerable to climate change and emerging diseases, largely due to failure to implement sanitation measures. The artifacts of these changes can move spatially, posing risks to residents. It is generally accepted that all ecosystems in the world are interconnected. To this end, social values ​​must be prioritized, including decent housing and food of adequate quality and quantity; education; health; environmental factors and all other players in the complex that determine emerging diseases.

This must be reversed for the benefit of communities and future generations through continuous development education, social welfare (including balanced nutrition), and health programs aimed at providing solutions to emerging disease problems.

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