Healthcare and Poverty: Comparing the Earthquakes in Chile and Haiti
Chile Earthquake
“The right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.”
As discussed in lecture by professor Marks, one can only assume that the highest available health care is relative to the region where article 12 is being regarded in legislative health policies. But as could be seen in Haiti, the long-term inability to give the population their conceptual right to health left the country in a state of catastrophe after the January earthquake. What can be seen, is how much less damage was done to the recent earthquake in Chile, with a rising death toll currently above 700 compared to Haiti’s 100,000+. I ask, would following the assumed notions of health and the right to health utterly have changed Chile’s less catastrophic earthquake damage, that is, compared to Haiti’s?
While CNN reporters state that “weak building materials” (1) were a larger factor, the delayed response in the first 24 hours and inadequate medical conditions proved to be a larger, more critical aspect of the gapped death toll. Many of those affected by the earthquake already suffered from a lower social well being than those in Chile. Yet even in the face of a stronger earthquake, Chile’s better quality of life seems to be the stronger foundation in having an easier recuperation.
Guari states that human rights approaches to health will prove to be more beneficial than initial economic approaches. While in the face of a natural disaster, however, quick and proper health is all that truly matters. Emergency medical treatment must be blind to race, socioeconomic status, and any other distinctions that would classify one human differently than another. The accessibility of medical care complemented by medical care availability is what truly makes one wonder how health care disparities in two different countries, both of which flawed by a lack of outreach to those in relative and absolute poverty, can still have a fair amount of difference in emergency action plans.
There have been global health initiatives to aid Haiti’s health care system, yet it is the economic and social disparities that made Haiti’s earthquake a tragedy. Chile’s healthcare reform has been a hot button topic in political discourse, but has not beckoned for the same international aid as Haiti.
Both Haiti and Chile are relatively different countries, both with their own political struggles, yet what one gets to see, is just how many lives can be saved when a country provides more adequate living conditions, healthcare, and a general well being.
The discussion of poverty as a preventable human rights violation can be supported by viewing both these countries parallel to one another in the face of a natural catastrophe. Over population, economic and social resources, a system of healthcare closer to obeying Article 12. The affects it had on Haiti were tragic, while less so on Chile. One has yet to see how Haiti will turn around in the face of disaster, especially with corpses still in the street and the rain season approaching. Will contamination of water supplies and increased rates of malaria create just as much damage as the earthquake has? Preventable diseases like malaria and giving access to clean water will be a marker for Haiti’s recovery. Chile does not have to worry nearly as much so, both by environmental differences and economic status as a nation.
1. Colin Stark, http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/02/28/stark.chile.quake.haiti/index.html?hpt=C2
© 2010, Jonathan Igne-Bianchi. All rights reserved.