The World Health Organization was formed in 1946 and is currently the leading world alliance for health. It was designed to promote technical health corporations globally, and its programs are aimed at controlling and eradicating diseases. The organization generally aims at improving the quality of human life. The main functions of WHO that make it important include its ability to provide global guidance in healthcare matters, it sets the global health standards, it corporates with governments from different nations to strengthen the health programs nationally, and it develops and transfers the required health technologies, standards and information.
Millennium development goals refer to the agenda aimed at eradicating poverty and improving the living standards of people in the manner that is agreed by world leaders on the millennium summit which was held in September 2000. Each goal has got set targets that are to be achieved by 2015. Its aim is to eradicate poverty and hunger, to ensure the achievement of universal primary education, to enhance gender equality and women empowerment, to reduce child mortality, to improve maternal healthcare condition, to combat severe disease such as HIV and malaria, to ensure that the environment is sustainable and to develop development partnerships globally. Millennium development goals show how the basic needs of life can be included in the millennium development goal process. It builds on the local organizations' ability to ensure that the priorities of the local people are addressed.
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The Millennium Development goal six that focuses on combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (Buse & Hawkes 2015) aims to stop and implement the process of reversing the spread of the diseases by the year 2015. The development goal was to ensure the access to treatment of HIV for individuals who needed it by the year 2010. Its importance to global health is that it has contributed towards the reduction of HIV/AIDS-related deaths. It has enhanced a reduction in the number of individuals infected by the same disease globally. There is a massive increase in the number of individuals living with HIV who receive anti-retroviral therapy globally; hence a global reduction in the deaths caused by the epidemic. The universal malaria infection rate has drastically reduced by roughly 40 percent. There is a reduction in mortality rate from malaria by 60 percent globally. The treatment interventions for tuberculosis that was conducted between 2000 and 2013 saved the lives of roughly 37 million individuals and deaths caused by TB reduced by 40 percent within the same period.
Country and Goal Progress
Over 6.2 million deaths were caused by malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa between the year 2000 and 2015 (Cibulskis et al., 2016). Currently, the number of deaths caused by malaria has reduced with an estimated number of 37 percent. The number of individuals receiving anti-retroviral HIV treatment has increased between 2004 and 2009. Malaria incidence and the rate of malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa has fallen by roughly 45 percent. The initiated interventions such as the distribution of insecticide-treated nets and residual mosquito sprays are sustained as a way of preventing the number of deaths caused by malaria. The country is seen to be on track to meet the millennium development goal of combating HIV/AIDS and malaria.
Nursing Role
Nurses employ different strategies towards the achievement of millennium development goal six which focuses on combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. They have independent roles to play to achieve MDGs. Such roles include providing health education, providing canceling, providing care and attending to the sick people. They also offer nursing education among other roles. Nurses in the healthcare workforce constitute about 80 percent of the total workers. They are the primary providers of patient care. The effective interplay of the roles provided by nurses contributes highly towards achieving the MDGs. They have taken part in working hand in hand with doctors to ensure that patients with diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria get the necessary treatment. They also provide healthcare canceling to the affected patients and encourage them to take the available drugs to reduce the mortality rate of HIV. Nurses provide the required care for those patients who get hospitalized and carry out campaigns that advocate for the prevention of the diseases. Such roles have helped Sub-Saharan countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals in combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases. The roles entail of prevention measures and healthcare solutions to patients.
Health Disparity and Findings
Health disparities are the difference in the severity of diseases (Howell et al., 2016) which are experienced by people of different age groups mostly in the socially disadvantaged populations. Different populations consist of individuals with different races, academic achievements and gender. Health disparities are associated with unequal distribution of resources. Such health differences include factors like the number of people who get infected with certain diseases, the severity of the diseases, the number of people that have developed complications due to the disease, the number of those that have died from it, whether individuals are in a position to access healthcare services and the number of people that have been screened for the disease.
A vulnerable population is a group of individuals who could experience health problems that can make it hard for them to continue living a healthy life. Such individuals can develop health complications which can make it hard for them to function properly and take care of their health needs. This enhances more health complications. Such populations include elderly people who cannot take care of themselves because they are too old or too sick. They have declined incomes. Children are as well among the vulnerable because they cannot take care of their medical expenses. People with incurable diseases are categorized as vulnerable. Such people may become poorer and sicker because they lack the necessary resources to access healthcare services.
Healthcare services do not adequately meet the need of the vulnerable in society. For instance, the number of patients who did not have medical insurance between 200 and 2004 and were below 65 years of age grew by roughly 6 million. The greatest growth of individuals without insurance was seen in poor people and this meant that they were not eligible to afford medical services. More than half of such individuals who had chronic ailments reported that they could not afford to buy prescribed drugs in 2003. This is because they could not afford the cost of such drugs. Chronic diseases prevail more among people who are poor and disadvantaged in society (Riosmena et al., 2015). The impact of such ailments is severe among those that are unemployed, uneducated and uninsured.
Nursing Strategies
Nurses can improve healthcare disparities by improving access to healthcare education and providing parental support programs (Adler, Glymour & Fielding, 2016). Such programs can reduce disparities by strengthening family ties and preventing neurodevelopmental and biological consequences of disadvantaged individuals. They should promote health to the underprivileged by helping them prevent diseases that can be prevented. Nurses should provide ways in which the disadvantaged can prevent such ailments. They should encourage individual to get screened early enough in case of any symptoms instead of waiting for diseases to spread and go to hospital when it's too late. This can help them financially because diseases that are detected in the early stages are easier to treat and have lower financial costs. By providing medical education to individuals in a poor country, nurses help in creating awareness about medical care. Such programs contribute positively towards managing and eradicating diseases.
In conclusion, the World Healthcare organization still tries to ensure that individuals across the globe get access to quality medical services. Its responsibilities include strengthening health services, ensuring that technical health services are established and maintained, focusing on the eradication of diseases and improving global health conditions. Its operations continue to be enhanced by three major components which are the universal health assembly, the secretariat, and the executive board. More nations continue to improve their healthcare conditions through the millennium development goals, and this has highly reduced the mortality rates in such countries due to the improved healthcare conditions and poverty eradication. Leaders from developed and developing nations have essential roles to play towards ensuring that the lives of impoverished individuals are improved. Developing countries must work towards integrating the MDGs into their plans, policies and budgets. It is important for the involved parties to be accountable for any progress or losses being made.
Nurses continue to provide healthcare services, and this contributes positively towards the millennium development goals. It is however important if the healthcare needs of the disadvantaged individuals can be met because such people cannot make their lives stable due to old age or physical challenges. The MDGs are mutually binding in that the poor countries have to wait for the rich countries to achieve the goals before they can be able to achieve such goals.
References
Adler, N. E., Glymour, M. M., & Fielding, J. (2016). Addressing social determinants of health and health inequalities. Jama , 316 (16), 1641-1642.
Buse, K., & Hawkes, S. (2015). Health in the sustainable development goals: ready for a paradigm shift?. Globalization and health , 11 (1), 13.
Cibulskis, R. E., Alonso, P., Aponte, J., Aregawi, M., Barrette, A., Bergeron, L., ... & Schwarte, S. (2016). Malaria: global progress 2000–2015 and future challenges. Infectious diseases of poverty , 5 (1), 61.
Howell, E. A., Egorova, N. N., Balbierz, A., Zeitlin, J., & Hebert, P. L. (2016). Site of delivery contribution to black-white severe maternal morbidity disparity. American journal of obstetrics and gynecology , 215 (2), 143-152.
Riosmena, F., Everett, B. G., Rogers, R. G., & Dennis, J. A. (2015). Negative acculturation and nothing more? Cumulative disadvantage and mortality during the immigrant adaptation process among Latinos in the United States. International Migration Review , 49 (2), 443-478.
