Assessment Task: 1
Contemporary Design Research Presentation.
--HIV/AIDS pandemic in developing countries, talk from TED.com by Frederick Balagadde.
The developing world face a number of issues that we as citizens of a established nation often do not believe to be true or have a hard time in understanding, as we have come so very far in our development.
'Developing Countries' is a term that is not internationally defined, it can have a number of meanings depending on what country and the individuals cultural background. Generally speaking it categorises the least developed countries throughout the world, parts of South Africa, South America and Asia - I am particularly focusing on Africa and the region named 'Sub-Sahara Africa' (transitional zone between the Sahara and the tropical savanna) comes under this definition for a number of reasons. Because of the countries locality it has little access to advances in technology, architecture and health facilities. There economy suffers and so do the people.
A brief overview of Africa's economy is necessary to understand the full impact of my chosen contemporary response to a social issue.
Being one of the poorest inhabited countries Africa is the home to over 922 million people, the people are the reason for any production of trade, resources and industries. Africas' poor economy was irritated by the Cold War and 'increased corruption and despotism.' 1
North and South Africa are by far the wealthiest parts of Africa because of connections to neighbouring countries or their wealth in GDP (gross domestic product), along with East Africa that have been successful in trade and development after the war. This is all apposed to the middle of Africa, as I mentioned the Sub-Sahara Africa, which is considerably poor in comparison. A problem they have faced for decades is poverty because of the never-ending famine and wars that have broken out in the area. The country has a striking inequality between urban and rural areas, 'upper class has a much higher income than the majority of the population.' 1
Africa shares in 0.6% of the global share of electricity, with the rural areas of the country lacking any access, this is half the country and those that do have access to electricity often experience power shortages. The traditional resources for energy such as oil or coal are too expensive and although the country has the potential to create a great revenue for solar energy (as they are in the tropical area all year around) African government have yet to consider this let alone act. This would produce jobs, energy and power and income for the country, but because of the current situation it has been overlooked.
Their main source of information comes from the radio, although the television is popular the power outs make them less reliable. An increase in mobile phones has become apparent, people can transfer funds via sms and check best prices for farmer's produce. Broadband is very expensive and limited in the region outside South Africa, yet an increase in mobile internet usage is on the rise. Compared to our society they are only just coming into technology that will allow them connection to the rest of the world.
'Less than 40 percent of rural Africans live within two kilometres of an all-season road, the lowest level of rural accessibility in the developing world' 1
Sub-Sahara Africa is rich in minerals and are one of the major suppliers of minerals such as gold and diamonds among others. Although they are in competition with Asia in the supplying to other countries, particularly when it comes to oil.
Agriculture has always been a fundamental activity for the Sub-Sahara Africans and this hasn't changed. They hold the largest variety of wild grains that lie along the nile than any other country, they have encouraged other countries to harvest there own wild grains and have themselves domesticated crops and shared with the world. The most successful trade comes from the cotton, tobacco coffee and tea crops just to mention a few. Agriculture designates almost a third of the countries produce, and a total of 50% in exports, it is also in most cases '60% to 90% of the labour force'. 1
Hard to believe but these people have the strength and integrity to pursue education with a growth in enrolment in higher education as well as seeking university degrees, as an OECD country (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Sub-Sahara Africa is the most educated immigrant group.
Now Health is a huge concern because of the current poverty circumstances, in 1987 a conference held by the World Health Organisation, that helped rebuild the health policy of Sub-Sahara Africa. Allowing for higher accessibility of medicine and facilities as well as cheaper, more efficient health care. A major concern is the AIDs epidemic, many governments have tried implementing strategies to fight the disease and spread awareness. Many face struggles caused by the the insufficiency of technical support in spite of the diversity of reasons for it.3
Their poverty leads to many other difficulties in life. Some are uncertain livelihoods, exclusions to certain locations, physical limitations and restricted capabilities, abuse often by those in power, a lack of security, struggles in relationships and also weak community management. 2
I have chosen a TED.COM speaker, Frederick Balagadde. Who is part of the 2009 TEDGlobal Fellow discusses his invention, the microchemostat, and how it can revolutionise the way we diagnose and treat deadly diseases in the developing world. 4
The developing nation which Balagadde focuses on is Africa particularly the effected area of Sub-Sahara Africa, where many diseases including AIDS/HIV, break out and spread. Without the facilities and knowledge about the diseases people are either dying because they do not know or because they cannot afford the treatment.
AIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by HIV - human immunodeficiency virus5, simply put it weakens the immune system and causes the individual to be more prone to infections and other diseases, it is transmitted by the exchange of bodily fluids, either during sex, blood transfusions, childbirth and breastfeeding. AIDS is now a pandemic, widespread. Accounting for millions of deaths, in 2007 over three quarters of these deaths occurred in both adults and children in Sub-Sahara Africa. The concentration in Africa is about twenty times greater than the rest of the world.
It is believed the disease broke out in west-central Africa late 90's 5 and as of now there is a treatment available that can slow the course of the disease and it's effect but there is no cure or prevention at this stage. Any drugs that are being tested are often too expensive and unavailable to those in desperate need, the difficulties in diagnosing and treating people with HIV has led to many prevention programs. Educating people on how to avoid infection by promoting safe sex particularly in AID ridden countries, also needle exchange strategies to reduce the spread of the virus.
⁃ Frederick Balagadde is a research scientist in the Engineering Technologies Division at Lawrence Livermore National laboratory.6 Studying in Uganda, Indiana and California. After graduating Balagadde invented the microchemostat, 'a first-of-its-kind micro fabricated fluidic system that mimics a biological cell culture environment in a highly complex web of tiny pumps and human-hair-sized water holes, all controlled by a multi-tasking computer.' 6
In 2003 the World Health Organisation decided to do a program that would lead to the provision of free HIV drugs to all the Africans that would need them, this approach has saved lives of millions of African people. The treatment has actually had a devastating mirrored effect, the profusion of drugs in one area and the shortage of diagnostic services in another there is always the possibility of drug resistance.
The drug resistance would make HIV more lethal and difficult to treat, the improvement of diagnostic services will help in the fight against the virus furthermore better treatment at a lesser cost and prevent the spread of drug resistant HIV. In the talk Balagadde explains how testing people for the AIDS virus is very expensive, so proposes an idea based on the Microfluidics technology where they control the flow of fluid to a single chip.
The chip would save costs as it would perform many duties that would take several people to do and is also very efficient, one chip can diagnose 100 patients, for every patient it can diagnose 100 diseases and instead of being at the current price of $65 per patient per test this would only cost $10 per patient. Balagadde believes that as the volume and demand goes up the price will come down.
Balagadde has an innovative idea that has been implemented as a response to the grave social issue of the spread and infection of HIV/AIDS in developing countries. This contemporary design has been scientific and not only thought through as a product but also it's success and benefits and disadvantages of such a program. The team has improved upon existing technology to find an answer to this never-ending tragedy of disease.
Bibliography
1 07/09/2010 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Sub-Sahara Africa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-Saharan_Africa#Economy
2 08/09/2010 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Poverty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty
3 08/09/2010 - Xinhua - English
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-10/04/content_5167991.htm
4 04/09/2010 - TED l TED Fellows l About the Fellows program l Watch the Fellows' talks
http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/391
5 09/09/2010 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - AIDS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS
09/09/2010 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Antiretroviral drug
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiretroviral_drug
6 10/09/2010 - About Balagadde
http://balagadde.org/default.aspx
10/09/2010 - Profile on TED.com l Frederick Balagadde
http://www.ted.com/speakers/frederick_balagadde.html
10/09/2010 - Wikipedia, the free enclyclopedia - Microfluidics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfluidics
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