Why do people in africa get diseases and how we could we stop this from happening? And why is it so easy for them to

Question: Why do people in africa get diseases and how we could we stop this from happening? And why is it so easy for them to get ill or for the disease to spread?
- Keywords:
  infection,
  social
Asked by jordanfarmer to Ruth, PB, Paul, Lyn, Katy on 20 Jun 2013.
- Peter Balfe answered on 20 Jun 2013:
  
  Africa has 19th century health care, the simple answer is to bring that number forward!
  Illness is more frequent when people are cold, wet, malnourished, overcrowded. Typical of refugee camps and places where people only just hang on to life.
- Ee Lyn Lim answered on 20 Jun 2013:
  
  People in Africa get diseases just like you or I! The difference is that you or I could go to a doctor and get medicine for our diseases, but in the poor, remote parts of Africa there often isn’t a doctor around. If you got food poisoning you’d go to the pharmacy and get a pill for it. If a poor kid in Africa got food poisoning, they’d quite likely die.
  
  People living in poverty also get sick more easily because they’re malnourished – they don’t get enough food, which makes them weak. Often they don’t have proper clothing, which means they’re exposed to all sorts of weather. And if they don’t have proper sanitation – a shower, or a flushing toilet, or even clean drinking water – they’ll have all sorts of bacteria and nasty parasites around them, much more than you or I do. Infectious diseases spread so quickly because these people tend to share things – many people live together in a small house, for example. Also they’ll not have been taught how diseases spread, so they might not know to stay away from other people when they’re ill.
  
  How do we solve this problem? It will take lots and lots and lots of money! First we’ll have to make sure these people can get to a doctor when they need to, which means building new clinics all over Africa and hiring doctors to work there. Then we need to teach the people that they need to go see a doctor when they’re ill! Many people who live in the remote places of Africa don’t understand medicine, and they won’t trust you when you tell them to swallow a funny white pill, or when you try and poke them with a needle. That’s where education comes in. Finally, we need to clean up the places they live in, and that means building solid houses, plumbing, sewage, water treatment and everything, as well as making sure they have a steady source of nutritious food. And we can’t just feed them all of this on a silver plate – they have to be able to sustain a healthy life by themselves, which means MORE education. We’ve got a long long way to go!
- Katy Brown answered on 21 Jun 2013:
  
  Yes, it’s easy for diseases to spread when people are very poor, don’t have good food and can’t access drugs and doctors. Also, hot countries have a lot of insects, which often transmit diseases. It is a long process to stop this from happening, cheaper and more widespread access to life changing drugs would be a good start – a lot of the diseases which kill people in developing countries can already be cured.
- Paul Waines answered on 25 Jun 2013:
  
  People in africa get diseases for many reasons. One of the main reasons is that their living conditions are not as good as ours. This means that they are more likely to catch diseases and not have a cure easily available to them. Also, because there are often many people very close to eachother, and the weather is often hot and humid, this gives diseases the opportunity to spread very easily.

Question: Why do people in africa get diseases and how we could we stop this from happening? And why is it so easy for them to get ill or for the disease to spread?