Referring to specific examples of primary healthcare strategies, evaluate their effectiveness in meeting the needs of people in developing countries (20)

Question 1

1a) Strategy - Provide community healthcare workers who can visit rural areas easily + money can be spent on training people in local villages.

Answer 1

• TMT hospitals can concentrate on treating the very sick people.
• Our healthcare workers are trusted by the community. TIB they have similar customs + dialects + are chosen locally in villages. TMT if they advise on hygiene/nutrition + give health advice, their patients will listen to this + their health will improve.
• However this is an issue as healthcare workers become trained / improve skills / qualifications TMT they may move to the city and pick up employment. TRI having to train and extra costs

Question 2

1b) eg - DRC

Answer 2

• community healthcare workers are not paid - purely voluntary work TMT it was difficult to retain them. As they became more skilled through training, will move to the cities for improved wages.
• They are given advice to improve + uniforms are provided TMT increases social status.
• Mobiles phones TMT data can be sent to hospital more efficiently

Question 3

2a) Strategy - community healthcare workers can provide treatments such as oral rehydration therapy (ORT)

Answer 3

• TMT diarrhoea can be treated with sachets.
• eg) diarrhoea kills 2,195 children a day which is preventable. 1.2 million children a year.
• Community healthcare workers can diagnose dehydration + provide cheap ORT. eg) WHO/Oxfam supply it. It is expensive/if administered properly it can reduce deaths from dehydration through diarrhoea by aprox 1 million a year/up to 93% THIS SHOWS PHC strategies can be effective.
• However the problem with this is that not everyone has access to clean water, making ORT effectively useless. This needs to be addressed

Question 4

2b) eg - Sierra Leone

Answer 4

• Sierra Leone’s population does not have access TMT they can’t mix up ORT - so it is useless.

Question 5

3a) Strategy - Provision of immunisation programs after protection against diseases like polio

Answer 5

• TMT the young stay healthy, are looked after, they have less illnesses + can attend school more regularly. TMT education + illiteracy rates will improve - increasing quality of life.
• Immunisation programs are now more effective with refrigerated backpacks. TMT UNICEF/WHO volunteers can visit villages by foot in isolated/rural areas + ensures everyone has access to the programs.

Question 6

3b) eg - Afghanistan + Pakistan

Answer 6

• However due to war in Afghanistan there is an ongoing presence of the Taliban + a pressure on locals not to accept vaccines from “westerners”, so the uptake has decreased between Pakistan + Afghanistan because of “unchartered boarders” TMT people moving may be infected with the disease TMT they spread + there is an outbreak of polio currently. In May 2019 there were 15 reported cases.

Question 7

4a) Strategy - Establishment of more reliable + cleaner water supplies : improving sewage and effluent disposal.

Answer 7

• TMT Oxfam pay for “Play Pumps” (wells that produce pump water as they are attached to roundabout) TMT clean water is provided as they play and is provided by Play Pumps International.
• eg) over 884 million people are drinking unsafe water TMT there is a need for clean water.

Question 8

4b) eg - South Africa + Mozambique

Answer 8

• Play Pumps were introduced in South Africa + Mozambique. However there is an issue in Mozambique because many lie idle + have been replaced. This could be due to the fact that in rural areas, children are needed to work on the land - so less time for play.
• The roundabouts need to ‘spin’ continuously to produce water TMT children weren’t playing but walking in circles continuously - in actual fact, they would need to work 27 hours a day to deliver water to 2,500 people in the area TMT they need to think of + adapt new strategies
• Also water is scarce, the ground water has been depleted in many places so the pumps no longer work.

Question 9

5a) Strategy - SODIS - Solar water disinfection for bottles.

Answer 9

• TMT the aim is to reduce infant mortality by helping to provide people with clean drinking water by setting it out in the sun for 6 hours. TMT the UVA rays in the sunlight clean viruses, bacteria, germs + parasites.

Question 10

5b) Bangladesh

Answer 10

• However, there have been problems with the water not being clean enough to drink. A study in rural, coastal Bangladesh highlights that only 34% of households used SODIS. TIB local communities felt embarrassed to put these bottles out in the sunlight as their neighbours would know they are poor + the water doesn’t look clean.
• TMT as a result of this, the bottles weren’t going out for long enough in the sun to filter the water. TMT, illnesses like typhoid + diarrhoea occur. This is a serious issue as over 2000 deaths per day can be attributed to diarrhoea.