Ethiopias Medical Dilemma :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Ethiopia's Medical Dilemma Living in an industrialized country like America, and especially in a community such as Bryn Mawr, we are well fed and given excellent healthcare. Despite student complaints that they cannot go to the health center for a cough drop without being asked if they could be pregnant, most students are aware that they are very lucky and appreciate that there are parts of the world that are ravaged by diseases such as Malaria, which kills three children every minute. We donate money, we participate in clothing drives, but it is there that our involvement often ends, and we rarely see how effectively organizations such as Doctors without Border or Unicef ameliorate epidemics and other crisis developing countries. If one judges by the recent outbreak of malaria in Ethiopia; these human rights organizations are not living out the 'I Dream of Africa'-esque humanitarian fantasy that the donors may have imagined. Unicef, in conjunction with the Ethiopian government has been using what some claim are outdated drugs to fight the disease, which The World Health Organization predicts will infect 15 million of Ethiopia's 65 million population ( three times the normal infection rate) (1) . However, international doctors groups' such as Doctors Without Borders argue that the outdated drugs will be ineffective and may even make the epidemic more severe. There are new drugs that both W.H.O. and Doctors without Borders favor, but they are expensive and it is felt that it might worsen the situation to switch tactics now. And so the problem presents itself: expensive, effective new drugs, or cheaper, older drugs that may not work(1). One can understand the position of the Ethiopian Government so far as that they would like to choose the less expensive option. However, if the treatment they buy is not effective and if the second line of treatment is not possible for many of the citizens, then it is not on ly in the Ethiopian government's best interest, but also their responsibility to seek out and use a drug that will in fact help their citizens. In a country with an average life span on 44 years and a death rate of 17.2 percent for children under five, the health care in Ethiopia is already poor and this malaria epidemic is the worst that the country has seen since 1998 (3). Malaria is spread largely by Anopheles mosquitoes and attacks the liver and red blood cells, though it can also attack other organs, depending on the case (4).