Reference no: EM133023177

HIV/AIDS has particularly high morbidities and mortalities in the developing countries listed above, and is all but eradicated in the developed countries, some of which have occurrences of less than .1% of the adult population. An interested exception to this rule is Afghanistan, a developing country with an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of less than .1%. (CIA, 2021). It can be inferred this is due to the countries devout Islamic culture (i.e., sexual abstinence).

The Disability Adjusted Life Years in developing countries are due in large part to infectious and diarrheal diseases. The driving risk factors of this are malnutrition, lower access to improved drinking water, and poverty. Needless to say, the DALY's in developed countries due to these types of diseases are far more favorable. (CIA, 2021).

This is not to say that developed countries are immune from diseases. The driving factors of DALY's in developing countries come from high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes, and cancer. The driving factors are poor diet (not malnutrition), tobacco usage, excessive alcohol intake, and lack of exercise. (CIA, 2021).

Ishcemic heart disease is unique in that it does not appear to discriminate between developing and developed countries. It is one of the top contributors for DALY's in both the developing and developed countries listed above. (CIA, 2021)

The absence of universal healthcare bears a correlation to the presence of a dual burden of disease. The developed countries, once again, bear a much higher Universal Health Coverage Index than do the developing countries. Concurrently, the developed countries have a single burden of diseases, with common occurrences of heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, and cancers. The developing countries with lower UHC index lose more DALY's to diseases and infections that are contained, and in some cases obsolete, in developed countries. For example, Haiti only just recently eradicated Cholera in 2019. (Nelson, 2020).

In a sense, the ongoing, unsolvable, and seemingly inescapable health dilemma seems to be death. Developed countries have found ways to avoid death longer than developing countries, but eventually fall prey to a new era of diseases. Citizens of developing countries tend to be more likely to die at younger ages as an indirect result of poverty (such as malnutrition and infections). Citizens of developing countries tend to die at older ages, as an indirect result of unhealthy lifestyle choices (such as smoking, sedentary lifestyles, and poor diet).

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