Health threat is global and not national in nature.
Order Instructions:
The international human right to health has been established through various international agreements and other documents, as depicted in “Table 12: Sources for the human right to health” (pp. 279–280). Among the principles that are asserted as human rights are the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of public health and health care services.
In this Application Assignment you are asked to analyze a global public health problem using the international human right to health as a framework. In what ways would a human rights approach to the problem help to provide solutions to the health threat?
Begin by examining a global health problem, such as a particular infectious or chronic disease or type of injury. Alternatively, choose specific public health problems such as lack of access to medical or dental care, war, or a natural disaster. Research your topic by locating and reading at least three primary research articles.
Then, write a 3- to 5-page paper in which you address the following:
•Explain why your selected health threat is global and not national in nature.
•Using the international human right to health as a framework, describe the severity of this problem. Focus particularly on the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of public health and health-care services related to your chosen global health threat. (Refer to Box 17, p. 281.)
•Do you think that a human rights approach is an appropriate and effective method for addressing this particular health issue? Take a stand and justify your position.
Your paper must provide APA-formatted references for all resources used and adhere to APA style and format.
References
Course Text: Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint by Gostin (2008) Chapter 7, “Global Health Law”
This chapter explores public health law on a global scale. It identifies the major intergovernmental organizations working on global health issues. It also examines how decisions are made to determine international public health emergencies with the global spread of disease.
Optional Resources
The O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2008, from http://www.law.georgetown.edu/oneillinstitute/index.cfm
World Health Organization: Trade, Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, and Health. (2008). Retrieved October 7, 2008, from http://www.who.int/trade/en/
World Health Organization: Health and Human Rights. (2008). Retrieved October 7, 2008, from http://www.who.int/hhr/en/
APHA: Global Health. (2008). Retrieved October 7, 2008, from http://www.apha.org/programs/globalhealth/
SAMPLE ANSWER
Introduction
In today’s world, accountability of the health centers has drastically increased where the services provided by the healthcare providers is carefully monitored by all rights guiding human rights. As a result, most of the health care systems have greatly worked in the expectation of human rights in the provision of their services. To avoid being held responsible of any adverse health situation of any individual, the government has ensured that there is availability of health services, safe and healthy working conditions of these systems. This is done in an attempt of coordinating well with human rights to health that have been protected by national and international bodies across the world. As such, this essay focuses on the human rights to health in regard to chronic diseases and how human rights can be used to control all health complications associated with chronic disease.
Chronic disease is a continuous health condition that cannot be cured but can only be controlled. According to the Center of Managing Chronic Disease (2011), chronic disease affects the largest population globally and being the leading cause of disability and deaths in the United States where it constitutes to the 70% of deaths in U.S. In addition, chronic disease is the leading cause of premature deaths across the world even where infectious disease are flourishing. However, despite these serious issues associated with chronic disease they are preventable as most of causes of this disease can be avoided as most of them are nutrition related causes. Consequently, this means that this disease is manageable and, thus, all the health organization bodies aiming at controlling this disease focuses on assisting patients in managing the disease by themselves.
Nevertheless, human rights to health can be used to prevent and reduce the rampancy of this disease. Human rights to health use several principles to evaluate the performance of a health care institution as well as the services they are providing. These rights argue that it is a right of every human being to achieve highest standards of mental and physical health that incorporates the ease of accessibility of medical services, health working condition, sanitation and a clean environment (Hunnicutt, 2010). According to human rights to health, there should be a universal way of accessing health care for everyone and it should be done on an equal basis. The accessibility right cuts across all forms of openness needed in a health facility. This includes the physical, information and economic accessibility (Hunnicutt, 2010). Chronic diseases can be prevented or contained whenever there is availability of healthcare services. It is through the availability of these services that will ensure that the bills associated in maintaining the sick people is reduced. Also, accessibility of these services will ease the availability of health education to the patients on how to manage their health conditions.
In addition, human rights stress that health care services should always be available. This right insists on the availability of enough health care infrastructures such as hospitals and trained health care professionals, services such as mental health and goods like drugs (Hunnicutt, 2010). Through the availability of services, chronic disease can be easily prevented as patients will be visiting these institutions severally and be attended to leading to early detection of this disease which is a key factor of controlling this disease. Moreover, the human right to health ensures that the health care providers and institutions are recognizing and respecting the dignity of human through the right of acceptability and dignity (Wolff, 2012). This right ensures that the appropriate services are offered by these institutions are taking into account the culture of the patient, gender and age. Through this right, chronic disease can be prevented amongst the old age as they are prone to these diseases. This right will ensure that the service providers extend their health education to the old age in an attempt of guiding them on the dietary issues. More so, the disparity of chronic disease is based upon the diversification of the ethnicity, education level and socioeconomic of different people. As such, this power governs the provision of health services to all the people equally while abiding with the code of ethics governing healthcare operations.
Correspondingly, human right to health uses the principle of quality to evaluate the quality of healthcare services provided in these institutions and their impact on the attended patients (Wolff, 2012). This principle argues that all health care must be of good quality and suitable to the serving of the patients. The right continues to argue that these services must be provided in time and in a safe manner. The right goes on and insists of the appropriateness of the of quality scientific and medical application in healthcare (Wolff, 2012). This can help reduce chronic liver disease that is an example of chronic disease by reducing the usage of the antibiotics by the patients.
All these rights combined can help reduce and prevent chronic diseases as they govern how the health care facility and providers handle patients. Similarly, these rights ensure that there is accessibility of the available healthcare services that in turn help in early identification of the chronic disease. Equally, the rights evaluate the quality of the services provided by clinicians while attending to patients affected by this disease as well as acceptability of all the patients without any biasness in basis of age, gender, ethnic and education level.
Conclusion
In a conclusive voice, therefore, human rights to health are a crucial issue in evaluating the performance of a healthcare institution and in enhancing provision of better services by these institutions. Additionally, these rights can help in preventing and managing chronic diseases in that they ensure equal servicing of these patients as well as provision of high-quality service. Lastly, these rights ensure that health care services are enough and easily accessible anywhere, anytime by all patients.
References
The Center for Managing Chronic Disease, (2011). What is Chronic Disease? [Web at] <http://cmcd.sph.umich.edu/what-is-chronic-disease.html > Retrieved 6th, November 2014.
Wolff, J. (2012). The human right to health. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Hunnicutt, S. (2010). Universal health care. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.
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