Infant Mortality and HIV/AIDS; Two major issues for Rwandans.
Even with all of the positive growth seen in the country of Rwanda in the aspects of infant mortality and HIV/AIDS these are still two of the biggest struggles for Rwandans.
One of the problems Rwanda still faces in the sector of HIV/AIDS is the fact that it is one of the least developed countries which means that it has little resources and an insufficient number of healthcare clinics to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS. The main cause of this problem can be linked back to the genocide of 1994. During the genocide, rape, sexual torture and psychological abuse were rampant. This caused a big outbreak in infected individuals, especially in women. During the genocide many Rwandans fled their country to save their lives. After the dust settled from the genocide a vast majority of the population came back and settled down in the urban areas of Rwanda leading to over population of the area. The over population is one of the reasons that there is not enough resources to take care of all infected individuals because there just simply isn't enough to go around at the rate that people are becoming infected because they are so densely populated. A possible solution to this problem would be to encourage people to spread out to the more rural areas of Rwanda. And, even though there are several organizations already in place to help with the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in Africa, I think the people of Rwanda need to be educated on the issue and become activists themselves. I think if that was happening more, they would be able to help more people and themselves.
Coupled with the epidemic of HIV/AIDS is the ever prevalent issue of infant mortality. Again, like the HIV/AIDS infections, infant mortality has seen a great decrease over the years of the MDG implementation. But, there is still a lot of infants dying before or shortly after they reach the age of 1. One of the problems causing infant mortality starts with the health of the infant's mother. There is a lot of malnutrition in Rwanda and really all over Africa. One thing that a lot of mothers are deficient in is vitamin A. There is a high possibility that the lack of vitamin A during pregnancy of a women infected with HIV contributes to infant mortality. Vitamin A is something we frankly take for granted here in the US. Most of us do not even supplement it because we get plenty of it from what we eat on a daily basis. Something that could be done is like an immunization-type set up. Like we see all over in the US when the flu shot is offered all over as a vaccine in order to keep us healthy. The hospitals and even non-profit organizations could start doing vitamin A clinics where mothers or soon-to-be mothers come in and receive a simple vitamin A supplement to help reduce the chances of their infants passing away before the age of 1.
Even with all of the positive growth seen in the country of Rwanda in the aspects of infant mortality and HIV/AIDS these are still two of the biggest struggles for Rwandans.
One of the problems Rwanda still faces in the sector of HIV/AIDS is the fact that it is one of the least developed countries which means that it has little resources and an insufficient number of healthcare clinics to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS. The main cause of this problem can be linked back to the genocide of 1994. During the genocide, rape, sexual torture and psychological abuse were rampant. This caused a big outbreak in infected individuals, especially in women. During the genocide many Rwandans fled their country to save their lives. After the dust settled from the genocide a vast majority of the population came back and settled down in the urban areas of Rwanda leading to over population of the area. The over population is one of the reasons that there is not enough resources to take care of all infected individuals because there just simply isn't enough to go around at the rate that people are becoming infected because they are so densely populated. A possible solution to this problem would be to encourage people to spread out to the more rural areas of Rwanda. And, even though there are several organizations already in place to help with the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in Africa, I think the people of Rwanda need to be educated on the issue and become activists themselves. I think if that was happening more, they would be able to help more people and themselves.
Coupled with the epidemic of HIV/AIDS is the ever prevalent issue of infant mortality. Again, like the HIV/AIDS infections, infant mortality has seen a great decrease over the years of the MDG implementation. But, there is still a lot of infants dying before or shortly after they reach the age of 1. One of the problems causing infant mortality starts with the health of the infant's mother. There is a lot of malnutrition in Rwanda and really all over Africa. One thing that a lot of mothers are deficient in is vitamin A. There is a high possibility that the lack of vitamin A during pregnancy of a women infected with HIV contributes to infant mortality. Vitamin A is something we frankly take for granted here in the US. Most of us do not even supplement it because we get plenty of it from what we eat on a daily basis. Something that could be done is like an immunization-type set up. Like we see all over in the US when the flu shot is offered all over as a vaccine in order to keep us healthy. The hospitals and even non-profit organizations could start doing vitamin A clinics where mothers or soon-to-be mothers come in and receive a simple vitamin A supplement to help reduce the chances of their infants passing away before the age of 1.