1. What Factors make global development inequalities worse? Caitlin Cole Steph Clark Nicola Hoolickin Emma Conway HIV/Aids Tropical Diseases

2. HIV/Aids What is it? Aids is caused by HIV which is a sexually transmitted virus that attacks the cells in the immune system. As this goes on the body becomes more vulnerable to infections such as pneumonia, and therefore it has extreme difficulty to fight them off. When a HIV infection is very advanced it is called Aids, at this point the immune system will be extremely damaged. Can it be cured? Unfortunately there is no cure for Aids, however it can be treated. Antiretroviral therapy can be used to prolong the time between the HIV infection and Aids. This can sometimes mean that people with the HIV infection can live for the rest of their life without developing Aids. Antiretrovial therapy can also help add length to the lives of those diagnosed with Aids and lessen the pain, but it cannot stop it. Sometimes treating the infections can be done easily with tablets etc., yet other times medical equipment is needed and this is where those living in LEDC’s suffer most.

3. Aids in LEDC’s Aids badly affects people that live in the lesser developed countries of the world such as those in Africa. It is a huge problem and more than 25million people have died from it. The reasons that it affects LEDC’s the most is mainly because of medical care and education. Contraception is not widely available in places such as Somalia (Africa) and South Africa and because of the poor quality and availability of education many are not educated in the means of safe sex or STI’s. This makes HIV easy to develop. The treatment is not widely available and therefore many either do not have access to it or do not even know about it. There is also very low levels of medical care in these countries and this means neither HIV or Aids can be treated easily, especially as hospital standards are poor and there are not enough of them. As HIV can also be transmitted through mother to child it is again passed unknowingly, especially as most people in these countries do not have access to a health clinic or doctor to test for Aids. Also the medical treatment available may be too expensive for most as they generally live on little money. Aids is having a huge impact on death rates in these countries as so many people die from it each year. It is also the main working age (young adults) that are affected by Aids the most and therefore this is reducing the working population, causing less money to be brought into the economy. In South Africa in particular 41% of the deaths due to Aids (2006) were between 24-29 year olds. With a decreasing population and less money in the economy the country will find it hard to develop and move forwards.

4. Aids in MEDC’s MEDC’s cope so much better with Aids as the treatment is either free on some health care services (NHS) or affordable on others (America). It is also easily accessible and many educated and trained Doctors are available as well as health clinics and hospitals. People are also well educated in the means of safe sex and contraception and are taught about STI’s. Many also have available clinics to test for Aids and HIV and therefore it can be found in the earlier and more treatable stages. Campaigns Campaign groups in Africa are running Aids awareness campaigns through out Africa to try to develop the understanding of contraception and HIV. Groups such as LOVELIFE have been using media aimed at teens to get their message across, unfortunately the problem of these campaigns is that not enough people have access to things such as televisions, and therefore the message is still not getting through. Development HIV/Aids shows the large difference in the development of countries and unfortunately can worsen the levels of development in the countries it largely affects. Those countries that have high Aids and HIV are generally LEDC’s that are not developed enough to widely treat it where as in MEDC’s, although it is still a widely caught virus, treatment is well known about and available to those that need it. Therefore Aids does not harshly affect the MEDC’s rate of development yet it can have a harmful effect on LEDC’s development due to the large deaths and how widely and easily it is transmitted in those countries.

5. Tropical Diseases What are they ?? Tropical diseases is the name for any disease that occurs in the tropics. Some are only found in the tropics such as sleeping sickness but others are just found predominantly in the tropics and occur in other areas as well. It describes diseases that thrive and live in hot, humid conditions. These are diseases such as Malaria, Yellow fever, Diarrhoea, Cholera, Dengue fever, TB etc. Neglected tropical diseases affect nearly 1 in 6 people, killing 500,000 people every year, Why are they mainly in the tropics ?? They are found mainly in the tropics because the tropical climates are particularly good for the different diseases to thrive and spread. Also areas with a lot of poverty and little sanitation are especially prone to tropical diseases because they do not have the facilities to prevent and treat many of the diseases.

6. Tropical diseases in LEDCs Tropical diseases are found mainly in poorer, less developed countries and are mainly ‘poverty borne’ diseases. This is due to a lot of things. For example; Poor Nutrition –This can be bad for LEDCs because it leaves them especially vulnerable to contracting tropical diseases. Many of these diseases in other countries could be treated, but, because of many LEDCs financial state and them not being able to afford vital treatment it means that there are often unnecessary deaths. Access to sanitation – this can be a problem as there is often little access to proper sanitation. This means that people living in LEDCs do not always have access to clean drinking water etc. If all they have to drink is unclean water then it is going to lead to many people getting Cholera and other water-borne diseases. Climate – climate affects the spread of tropical diseases because it reduces agricultural production leading to malnutrition. Malnutrition – this can leave people vulnerable to disease as their immune system will be low and will not help in defending the person against the disease.

7. Some common tropical diseases Sleeping sickness (African trypanosomiasis) – a parasite that can result in comas and death...this affects 500,000 people a year. Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) – common in Latin America and some parts of the United states. It causes fever, swelling, and sometimes death. Affects 8million people. Black fever (Systemic Leishmaniasis) – caused by a sand fly bite, this can cause weight loss, diarrhoea and weakness. Giardiasis - spread by unclean water. Can cause diarrhoea and cramps. Malaria – transmitted by mosquitoes which carry a parasite. Affects children and pregnant women especially and carries a high death and illness toll with it.

8. Development Tropical diseases affect LEDCs development because they continue to drain money of LEDCs every day. These types of countries cannot cope with the amount of money it costs to try and bring vaccines over that supposedly prevent people from getting malaria etc into the country. Many of the medicines needed to cure the different diseases are extremely expensive and they cannot afford to spend money on cures and try to develop the country at the same time. This means that tropical diseases have a big effect on how quickly a country develops. This is proved by tropical diseases being called ‘poverty-borne’ diseases so this means ..... where there are tropical diseases there is usually some form of poverty ...... and, where there is poverty it usually means there is also a lack of money.

9. TheEnd