Health and community development approaches

Health and Community

Nola Pender states that the most important challenge in modern nursing is the understanding of global health issues. It is not enough to merely be aware of international disease patterns but to utilize western technologies to both inform and help bring about change to these epidemic situations. Several diseases have transcended the original locale to become worldwide issues. Most prevalent of these is the epidemic of HIV which has infected people all over the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially labeled the virus as a "pandemic," meaning that there is no place in the populated world that is not in some way impacted by HIV. The HIV and Aids epidemics are not new information. People have been suffering and dying with this disease for more than twenty years now. However, knowledge of the illness does not mean that people should give up and stop providing information or delay in asking questions and providing help to those who need it. Although the condition has been known for two decades, researchers are still very far away from finding a cure for the disease. In 2008 alone, more than two million people died from HIV (Aids 2009,-page 6).

It is believed that HIV began in Africa. From a population percentage, this continent has more HIV-infected people than any other location. Because the majority of people in Africa who are afflicted with HIV live below the accepted poverty line, those who suffer largely go untreated. Although there is no cure for HIV or the AIDS virus, there are medications which can alleviate symptoms and delay the inevitable result of that condition. Medical officials throughout the world have tried to help these disadvantaged nations through practices like Doctors Without Borders.