Greetings Everyone!
So sorry about the delay in postings, between catching up with power outages and internship duties my plate has been quite full. But I'm here to tell you I am packed full of information. I recently attended a small conference with regards to the public health issues of Nepal, the information I found was alarming as far as comparing how far along the US is in making medical strides. A lot of the issues here are surrounding infections and disease that are acute such as typhoid,tuberculosis, and lung infectioins,where as within the US its more chronic diseases, such as heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes. I think the problem spans a lot from lack of true public health. I spoke to the director on the same issues and he stated that workers are set in place to enforce treatment and education for the inhabitants the live within the Himalayas. But based on the number of patients and rate of infections something isn't working.Programs are constantly being initiated to help eliminate some of the problems, but due to lack of funding and the corrupted government a lot of what their trying to achieve is merely and dream...But what I did find most interesting was how much our US government is funding Nepal. They give Nepal $27 million every year, how crazy is that???!!! And to add insult to injury we give to MANY under developed countries. I have soooooooooo many mixed feelings concerning this matter just for the simple fact of how much we as nation are in debt, where does one even begin to find the money and time to help another place when in fact we are in soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much trouble ourselves. Furthermore, if in fact the US is donating money to Nepal why is there no representative making home visits to see where all this money is being put to work.... 10% of that money alone could take care of the pollution knocking out some of the lung infections here and maybe clearing up some of the smog within the air. The pollution within Kathmandu is so bad everyone wears masks with hopes of protecting themselves further from of the some the already caused damage. Another 20% of that donation could go towards trash clean up, do you know how much unman-aged garbage impacts ones health? Here's a snip-it from Waste Management:
Much of the health literature on the toxicity of the individual substances highlighted above relates to occupational or accidental exposure and thus generally to higher levels of exposure than those expected from waste disposal methods. Many of the substances, such as cadmium, arsenic, chromium, nickel, dioxins and PAHs are considered to be carcinogenic, based on animal studies or studies of people exposed to high levels. Evidence that these substances cause cancer at environmental levels, however, is often absent or equivocal. In addition to carcinogenicity, many of these substances can produce other toxic effects (depending on exposure level and duration) on the central nervous system, liver, kidneys, heart, lungs, skin, reproduction, etc. For other pollutants such as SO2 and PM10, air pollution studies have indicated that there may be effects on morbidity and mortality at background levels of exposure, particularly in susceptible groups such as the elderly. Chemicals such as dioxins and organochlorines may be lipophilic and accumulate in fat-rich tissues and have been associated with reproductive or endocrine-disrupting endpoints.
Now keep in mind that 30% of the donation that's $8.1 million just give some perspective. Based on this postings I think I finally found my topic of interest to research! For the longest time I struggled with my topic as far as finding research so thusly within this posting I finally realized what I want to enlighten myself on...Public Health within Nepal. I have sooooooo many issues that need to be address but I guess I'll save the rest for next time...Until then enjoy some really cool pictures!
So sorry about the delay in postings, between catching up with power outages and internship duties my plate has been quite full. But I'm here to tell you I am packed full of information. I recently attended a small conference with regards to the public health issues of Nepal, the information I found was alarming as far as comparing how far along the US is in making medical strides. A lot of the issues here are surrounding infections and disease that are acute such as typhoid,tuberculosis, and lung infectioins,where as within the US its more chronic diseases, such as heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes. I think the problem spans a lot from lack of true public health. I spoke to the director on the same issues and he stated that workers are set in place to enforce treatment and education for the inhabitants the live within the Himalayas. But based on the number of patients and rate of infections something isn't working.Programs are constantly being initiated to help eliminate some of the problems, but due to lack of funding and the corrupted government a lot of what their trying to achieve is merely and dream...But what I did find most interesting was how much our US government is funding Nepal. They give Nepal $27 million every year, how crazy is that???!!! And to add insult to injury we give to MANY under developed countries. I have soooooooooo many mixed feelings concerning this matter just for the simple fact of how much we as nation are in debt, where does one even begin to find the money and time to help another place when in fact we are in soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much trouble ourselves. Furthermore, if in fact the US is donating money to Nepal why is there no representative making home visits to see where all this money is being put to work.... 10% of that money alone could take care of the pollution knocking out some of the lung infections here and maybe clearing up some of the smog within the air. The pollution within Kathmandu is so bad everyone wears masks with hopes of protecting themselves further from of the some the already caused damage. Another 20% of that donation could go towards trash clean up, do you know how much unman-aged garbage impacts ones health? Here's a snip-it from Waste Management:
Much of the health literature on the toxicity of the individual substances highlighted above relates to occupational or accidental exposure and thus generally to higher levels of exposure than those expected from waste disposal methods. Many of the substances, such as cadmium, arsenic, chromium, nickel, dioxins and PAHs are considered to be carcinogenic, based on animal studies or studies of people exposed to high levels. Evidence that these substances cause cancer at environmental levels, however, is often absent or equivocal. In addition to carcinogenicity, many of these substances can produce other toxic effects (depending on exposure level and duration) on the central nervous system, liver, kidneys, heart, lungs, skin, reproduction, etc. For other pollutants such as SO2 and PM10, air pollution studies have indicated that there may be effects on morbidity and mortality at background levels of exposure, particularly in susceptible groups such as the elderly. Chemicals such as dioxins and organochlorines may be lipophilic and accumulate in fat-rich tissues and have been associated with reproductive or endocrine-disrupting endpoints.
Now keep in mind that 30% of the donation that's $8.1 million just give some perspective. Based on this postings I think I finally found my topic of interest to research! For the longest time I struggled with my topic as far as finding research so thusly within this posting I finally realized what I want to enlighten myself on...Public Health within Nepal. I have sooooooo many issues that need to be address but I guess I'll save the rest for next time...Until then enjoy some really cool pictures!
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| Paragliding in Pokhara |
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| Monkey Temple [Buddhist Temple] |
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| Paragliding in Pokhara |
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| Bhaktapur |
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