What are the major problems in the third world countries? How do people survive in such adverse conditions? Well, these questions make people ponder about human lives who don’t have a roof to live under or food to eat and those who die of hunger or some epidemic. Several global issues of poverty, high population and hunger, lack of infrastructures, illiteracy, superstition, pollution together with several disease has been prevalent in the third world countries. The development phase has almost stopped and the economic growth is gradually declining in those countries. With one part of the world enjoying all the monumental luxuries and meeting challenges of global economy, the other part of the world is seeing a fall in what requires them to uplift their standards.
Poverty, hunger and malnutrition has always been the greatest challenges that are faced by most of the people in the third world nations. Lack of agricultural productivity, and basic health care has horrified and deteriorated the conditions of people living in those countries. These problems has lead to several chronic diseases that has also been threatening the developing countries. These epidemics were responsible for 50% of the overall deaths caused by several diseases in those countries. In poor nations, the death and disability caused by these epidemics has exceeded a lot with 49% chronic and 40% communicable diseases. The main reasons people die of diseases in the lack of basic education, basic health and nutrition, clean water and sanitation and these problems has affected every developing and underdeveloped nation to the core.
So, let us take a look at the top 10 horrific epidemics in third world countries that have made life so difficult to take on.
10. Meningitis
Meningitis is caused by a bacterium that causes inflammation of different membranes surrounding the brain and the spinal cord. Most of the children below the age of 2 are affected with this diseases while several adolescents and adults also face serious problems in different third world countries. As this horrific disease is cyclic, it causes outbreaks taking a lot of lives of poor people all around the world who live in very overcrowded areas. The annual infection rate of meningitis is more than 1 million out of which 174,000 people lose their lives every year. The largest epidemic caused by the meningococcal meningitis is said to have occured mostly in the sub-Saharan African countries, in the middle of Africa mostly in dry seasons. Countries like Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Nepal and the northern part of India have suffered a lot from this disease. People with the deficiency in the immune system of blood and those who don’t have a working spleen get infected and are at risk. Around 5-10% of children and adults over 50 have the highest death rates in third world nation.
9. Whopping cough
Whopping cough also called the Pertussis in scientific term is one the most horrific contagious disease. It is also regarded as the leading causes of the vaccine-preventable deaths. Around 20-40 million people suffer from the horrific disease out of which around 300,000 people lose their live, of which 90% deaths occur in third world countries. This disease mostly affects infants below age 1 which leads to several symptoms of cough, runny nose and sneezing and the paroxyms of this for a long period leads to death. The main reason of deaths because of whopping cough is the transmission of several other pulmonary hypertension, secondary bacterial infection and other diseases like encephalitis and pneumonia. Together with the third world countries, this disease have been an epidemic in developed nations like Australia and USA as well.
8. Yellow Fever
Yellow fever has been regarded as a serious and horrific epidemic right from it was described in the fifteenth century. At different periods back in the history, this disease has causes several untold misery and hardship in several countries like Brazil and those of America, Africa and Europe. This arboviral disease has three epidemiological transmission cycles in between the monkeys, mosquitoes and humans. Several other diseases like jaundice, hepatorenal problems and bleeding problems which takes the lives to death. The annual death rate of people in third world countries is rising every year with the estimation of around 30,000 in number while around 200,000 people are said to be infected every year. Insecure and polluted environment, insufficient political commitment and misapplication of public health strategies have made this disease a horrific epidemic in the third world countries of Africa.