Workforce Education Training and Development Term Paper

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Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Developing Countries

Sexually transmitted diseases (STD's) have been a problem for doctors worldwide and governments around the globe for many years.

Pre-screening, diagnosis, and treatment programs are required to stop the spread of STDs.

A host of sexually transmitted diseases have, unfortunately, exploded in large numbers in the continent of Africa. These STD's include the HIV virus and the HPV virus, or human papillomavirus. HPV causes cervical cancer, and the HIV virus causes AIDS (auto-immune deficiency syndrome).

It is estimated that there are 100 million cases of AIDS worldwide, and that AIDS is now claiming more lives than all wars and natural disasters around the world.

In Africa, the problem is quite tremendous.

In South Africa alone, there are 4.7 million people infected with the AIDS virus. South Africa is the world's country with the largest infected population.

Sadly, it is estimated that worldwide, less than 1% of people infected with AIDS take drugs for their virus.

Similarly, in third world countries - including Africa - an alarming number of women die each year of cervical cancer, because they have been infected with HPV - the precursor to HPV. Every year, 80 to 90% of the people diagnosed with cervical cancer live in developing countries.

In developing countries such as America, screening and treatment prevent a large number of such cases, and prevent large numbers of deaths from HIV, HPV and cervical cancer. For example, in the United States, cervical cancer has decreased 80% in the last 40 years because of the health resources available to American women.

Unfortunately, in developing and third world countries, health and medicine resources are minimal, in the vast majority of cases.

Therefore, these cases often go undiagnosed, as there is no pre-screening and in fact, no health treatment at all.

Also, even if these third world countries do have health care facilities, they are often inadequate to detect and pre-screen for these types of viruses.

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For example, in the case of cervical cancer, the best detection method is the Pap smear (or the Papanicolaou smear). However, this treatment is expensive even by American standards, and certainly economically out of reach for residents of most developing and third world countries.

The result is that, in the case of cervical cancer alone, almost 200,000 women in third world nations die of cervical cancer each year.

Some experts estimate that as many as 70 million people could die of AIDS in the next 20 years if actions are not taken to help victims of HIV and AIDS.

Evaluation and Planning of a Program

Any effective program addressing the problem of sexually transmitted diseases in developing countries must start with the problem of funding.

For example, in the cases of AIDS alone, billions of dollars will have to be spent in treating and pre-screening for the disease.

Also, proper drugs would need to be readily available to carriers of the disease.

In many cases, inexpensive alternatives to the expensive screening and treatment health solutions used in first-world countries do exist and should be utilized in programs launched in the third world.

For example, one anti-cervical cancer program currently in progress in South Africa carries "an estimated average lifetime cost of $41 per woman, and reduced the incidence of cervical cancer in the population by one-third."

Similarly, another alternative treatment program only currently in progress costs only $39 per woman, reduces the number of cervical cancer cases by one-third, and merely involves the health care practitioner applying "vinegar to the cervix and examining it with her naked eye. Certain whitening of the tissue indicates precancerous cells."

Therefore, when it comes to third world health care, cost-effectiveness is a crucial….....

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