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The list of evils that often befall on the worlds
poorest countries has added another appellant. Fracture
epidemics are “a compendium of epidemics that undermine
the health and socio-economic situation of their
inhabitants”.
The warning comes from the Geneva based organisation The
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Movement (IFRC), in its report entitled “The Fracture
Epidemic”.
“People hit by an epidemic often die when they are young
while contributing to the productivity of their
country”, the document says, explaining that it is the
population of developing countries that are most
vulnerable due to health care structures which are not
being properly adapted.
Absence of Effective Responses
“Death, or simply being forced to stay in bed for
months, preventing (the youth) of benefiting their
country with what is learned in school, to work the
fields or care for their parents”, said Dr. Tammam
Aloudat, the
IFRC Senior Officer for Health Emergencies.
The organization criticizes “the lack of an adequate
response to the impact of growing epidemics in those
countries”, adding that “it is essential to better
evaluate the implications of these epidemics. Among the
14 million annual victims of diseases of infectious
origin, about four million die from respiratory diseases
and more than two million from diarrheal diseases”.
The Indifference of Developed Countries
The Red Cross complain of the “indifference” of the
industrialized countries against these epidemics: “There
is a real risk that the epidemic could also strike rich
countries with serious consequences”, warned Aloudat,
who is prime to “start to prepare for possible pandemics
that ignore borders, such as the current H1N1
virus...you must break the vicious circle of disease and
inadequate resources”.
“Once the west and the richer part of the world is
threatened, the already extremely scarce resources will
go there”.
The complacency of the rich and developed countries
towards epidemics has become a “serious threat” and the
health outcome is the reappearance of diseases
previously thought to have been eradicated in these
countries, according to the report.
Dr. Aloudat says that the epidemics in the world that
the rich are free form but are believed to be returning
include measles, influenza and more resistant strains of
tuberculosis. He compared the outbreaks with war but
said that the former are even worse because “the
infectious agents are ready, fit, have no mercy and we
can not negotiate with them”.
Media Hysteria Draws Attention away from Greater
Problems
In this regard, Dr. Aloudat regretted that Influenza
A(H1N1), more commonly known as “swine flu”, has grasped
much of the public and media attention, while other
infections are much more deadly: “This year, more people
have been infected by meningitis than ever and more
people have contracted polio, which we thought was being
eradicated, but it is not.
Who knows that 9 million people got dengue last year?
Who knows that there have been at least 35 different
outbreaks of meningitis? That does not happen in the
West anymore. In Arabic we say “far from the eye, far
from the heart” and that is what is happening. We do not
see real interest- we only see a vague uncoordinated
interest in high profile issues such as influenza, which
is itself a great risk, but not the only one.
The influenza has so far killed 150 people. The
potential for risk is massive, but what we have today is
14 million people dying unnecessarily from easily
preventable diseases that require little resources”.
Swisslatin / adapted by Stephen Hinch
(08.07.2009) |
