Why health matters?
Good health is crucial and essential to sustained economy, social development and poverty reduction[1]. Good health is nearly the basis of development. First, tight relationship exists between health and economy status of a country. When the birth rate increased by 10%, the annual economic growth rate was about 0.3%-0.4%[2]. Besides, heath does a great impact on education. In[3], the average math and reading achievement of children are negatively affected by several health conditions.
Brief introduction of SDG3—Good health and well-being
Even though the medical level has a great improvement all over 21th century, there still exists difficult medical problems and several places are still in poor medical conditions:
- Only half of women in developing regions receive the recommended amount of health care they need[4]
- 940 000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2017[4]
- Four out of every five deaths of children under age five occur in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia[4]
- An annual global age-standardized suicide rate is 10.5 per 100 000 population.[5]
SDG3 is mainly aiming to the following parts:
- Reduce maternal mortality and neonatal mortality rates
- Reduce communicable diseases like AIDS
- Reduce the injuries/deaths from road traffic or hazardous chemicals
- Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse
- Strengthen sexual and reproductive healthcare services
- Strengthen development of vaccines and medicines
Stay alert !
In addition to government policies and UGO efforts, what can we do in our normal life to help achieve SDG3 and maintain our body health?
- Get regular medical check-ups
- Get vaccinations and use condoms
- Wash hands and wear masks in flu season
- Quit smoking and drinking
- Periodic disinfection of clothing and other items
- Talk to someone when you are depressed, don’t be afraid of psychiatrists
Maintaining is better and easier than curing, we should stay alert to take care of ourselves. However, honestly, we can never ever avoid the happening of diseases in our life. Serious or small diseases would always occur, more importantly, we have to learn how to live with diseases and keep positive.
Stay united
When Ebola virus outbreaks, WHO organized doctors and nurses from all over the world to help the people in Congo; when novel coronavirus occurs in China, a huge number of medical supplies are donated from other countries and the vaccination is being developed with the help of the researchers around the world. The unsolved health problems are not just for a person or one country, it’s for the whole planet. The world is a huge circle, every part of it matters. Faced with diseases, we are incredibly small and fragile, but also, we are unexpectedly strong.
References:
- [1]Universal health coverage, world health organization. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/universal-health-coverage/GHO/universal-health-coverage
- [2]Health and economy: A vital relationship. Retrieved from https://oecdobserver.org/news/archivestory.php/aid/1241/Health_and_the_economy:_A_vital_relationship_.html
- [3]Eide, Eric R., Mark H. Showalter, and Dan D. Goldhaber. “The relation between children’s health and academic achievement.” Children and Youth Services Review 32.2 (2010): 231-238.
- [4]Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/health/
- [5]Mental health. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/mental-health/GHO/mental-health
Sylvia’blog 
hi, xinran~ I am your classmate from CSE. We have the same topic, but I do think your blog is much better. Firstly, you mentioned the importance of health. Honestly, I did consider this while I was writing my blog. I am surprised you should talk about its relationship with economy and education. Besides, I think your last paragraph is a fantastic idea. I support it. Faced with diseases, we human should unite as a group and fight against it together. I think the US government should learn something from your blog.
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Thank you for your compliment and I admire your blog too~
From my perspective, all the SDG are the same, they all rely on the power of unity. All these years, the medical technology is becoming stronger is not just because of only one person or one country. Medical problem like AIDS, cancer is worldwide problem and need efforts from all over the world. Besides, we can’t blame the disease origin country and create bias to them. Hope SDG3 could achieve oneday~
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This blog is a great combination of official strategy and your own opinion, impressing me with convincing and insightful ideas. You have organized the contents very well. I rarely found blogs full of logic like this one. The solutions to health care issues covered individual perspectives and the world’s perspectives. They are reasonable and practical. Actually, they make me wonder more about what should countries and societies do.
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I agree with you and do think the efforts of countries and societies are necessary!
To achieve SDG3, we can not only rely on personal efforts, the government and societies are a strong power to drive progress. First, I think government should make adjustment to relative policies according to the truth and dectect the contradictions between plans and real life. Second, forming of public awareness still needs more promotion. For example, smoking in public places are gradually considered as impolite behavior in more and more countries, which not only comes from the laws but also comes from the promotion of this public awareness.
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hhh! dear ! I am coming! This topic is new and special ! I like it! Health is largest wealth for us. But it not easy for young people to keep healthy, since they always stay up late, like you and me ^^. Thank you for your detail suggestion to be alert and maintain healthy body!
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Thank you for you comment!
Keeping healthy is really important especially for us young people. It seems that we still have good bodies at this time, but the root of diseases are left because of irregular lifestyles at young. We need to take good care of ourselves, otherwise, we definitely would pay the price in the future.
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I really like your blogs!! The style you used to describe and explain things is clear and easy to understand! Not like what I did in my blog, you list every sinle item or idea clearly in your blog.
I’m with you on the opinion you stated in your last paragraph. Disease is the problem that all human being is facing. The disease won’t stay away from you due to your ethnicity, nationality, gender, faith or sexual orientation. So all human being should stay united to achieve the UN SDG 3.
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Your article is always well-structured! The coronavirus in China attracts much attention and causes a panic, which poses a giant challenge to our medical science level. Because of the medical resources and the efforts of medical staff, the epidemic situation is increasingly controlled. I cannot imagine if this epidemic occurs in regions that have poor sanitary facilities! Therefore, to achieve the goal, I suppose that one of the key factors is sufficient medical equipment. It is greatly important not only in a critical situation but also in normal times.
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In the current circumstances of facing the novel coronavirus pneumonia, I can better understand the last sentence in your article. Keeping healthy is the most basic thing in our daily life. Without health, the other things will be more difficult to realize. Although no one can avoid suffering from diseases, maintaining good temper can be helpful to recover.
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I really like your blog, including the appearance and your analysis. Keeping good health is crucial and essential to the sustained economy, social development and poverty reduction. In this special period of China, I hope everyone can own a healthy body and pass the difficulties.
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