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Final Exam
Giselle Rojas
HSCI 6330
8 May 2022
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1. In global health, some of the most important organizations that work towards improving

health issues are the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and

the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (Skolnik, 2020). The major goal of the WHO

is to work towards promoting the best health levels for people around the world. Some of

their functions include advocating for current public health issues, sharing knowledge,

and establishing global health standards. For example, during disease outbreaks the WHO

will provide global surveillance and set up global public health forums. UNICEF

functions include promoting interventions aimed at improving children’s health,

advocating for children, and funding important programs. For example, UNICEF will

raise funds to promote programs to provide education and immunizations for children in

underserved countries. UNAIDS advocates for and monitors the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Through functions that include providing support for surveillance of HIV/AIDS, HIV

prevention strategies, and providing antiretroviral therapy, they aim to work towards

ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic (Skolnik,2020).

Organizations that work together are important to solving global health issues because

they provide advocacy, garner support, and share knowledge about the issue. One

example of a successful partnership is the Global Fund. The Global Fund works with

organizations like WHO and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They have provided

more than 38 billion in funding for important health improvement programs. Gavi is

another partnership among organizations like the Global Fund and WHO. They have

provided millions of children with important immunizations and advocate for vaccines

globally.
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2. Establishing funding is incredibly important to solving global health issues like

HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. One way that global funding can be raised is

through organizational cooperation and partnerships. Organizations like the Global Fund

are known to partner with different organizations to provide financing for important

health issues. Garnering support from important political figures and outside

organizations brings more support for financing HIV/AIDS drug treatments. Skolnik

(2020) highlights important organizations like Doctors Without Borders and Partners in

Health that have worked towards making HIV treatment more affordable. Overall, as

more people become advocates for HIV treatment, the more support can be garnered for

funding.

3. Skolnik (2020) defines a natural disaster as any event that negatively impacts the health

and well-being of a population that results in the need for outside support. Natural

disasters include events like earthquakes or hurricanes. Skolnik (2020) defines a complex

humanitarian emergency as a crisis that is damaging to society, leads to the displacement

of a populations and a substantial loss of life. These include events like the war in

Afghanistan and Syria (Skolnik, 2020).

Comparably, more people die as a result of indirect effect from a crisis, such as illness,

than the actual event itself. The burden of disease resulting from natural disasters and

CHEs are much worse than pre-conflict burden of disease. For example, in Rwanda the

pre-war crude mortality rate was 0.6 per 10,000 per day compared to 28.1-44.9 per

10,000 during the war (Skolnik, 2020).

Women are more at risk from being victims of sexual violence during complex

humanitarian emergencies. They are more at risk due to having inadequate security and
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living in an economic crisis. These situations increase sexual assaults against women and

in some cases, women are forced to get money or food by trading sex (Skolnik, 2020).

For example, data collected in East Timor found that 23 percent of women said they had

been sexually assaulted during the crisis (Skolnik, 2020).

4. According to Skolnik (2020), some steps that can be taken to reduce vulnerability to

heath threats resulting from natural disasters include disaster preparedness and hazard

mitigation. For example, these steps include measures taken to ensure there are better

building standards and education being given on disaster preparedness. Within the first

few days of a disaster resulting in displayed persons, there should be an established

assessment and surveillance of the population. There should be measures taken to

monitor disease threats and promote safe environmental practices. For example, good

hygiene should be practiced preventing the spread of diseases and hygienic practices

should be implemented. Also, providing adequate water, food, and space is important.

Overtime the concerns change because refugees will be in need of more services. The

longer time spent in one area the more important disease control and health services

become.

The creation of an established framework and code of conduct, like the Sphere handbook,

can ensure that organizations will work together and work towards the common goal of

cost-effective approaches in disaster responses (Skolnik, 2020).

5. Non-communicable diseases play a large role in the global burden of disease. For

example, in 2016 cardiovascular disease made up about 27 percent of all global deaths
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(Skolnik, 2020). Compared to communicable diseases, there is a greater burden of non-

communicable disease in low- and middle-income countries. However, Sub-Saharan

Africa is the only region that still sees higher rates of communicable diseases. This is due

to the fact that this region faces high rates of burden of disease from health issues like

Malaria and HIV/AIDS (Skolnik, 2020).

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Reference
Skolnik, R. (2020). Global Health 101 (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.