BREAKING BARRIER TO ACHIEVE GLOBAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVE WITH REFERENCE TO CHILD HEALTH CARE

Abstract

Anumber of nancial and non-nancial barriers may delay or prevent poor households from seeking health care for their sick infants and children. Such obstacles are common in low- and middle-income countries and include distance, nancial barriers, socio-cultural norms, language barriers, and lack of knowledge and awareness. These difculties affect all age groups and can lead to low demand for and use of services, particularly by the poor. Inequalities in child survival are not the result of a lack of technological solutions. Rather, poor children continue to suffer because costeffective child health interventions fail to reach them. It has been estimated that taking existing child health interventions to scale can result in a two-thirds reduction in child mortality. Infants, children, and adolescents face unique barriers to accessing care for several reasons. First, in many societies, the young full a submissive social role relative to their elders. This power imbalance results in the subjugation of young people to their parents, relatives, and elder siblings. When at the bottom of the social structure in a family with limited resources, this can mean that priority will be given to others when medical care is needed. Similarly, children lack full adult rights which can lead to further reliance on others for appropriate care In addition, many health problems that occur in children require specialized health care procedures by specially trained health care personnel. For example, in the United States, paediatricians must specialize and train differently from general practitioners, and paediatric sub-specialists exist within all other specialties (surgery, ENT, ophthalmology, etc.). Access to these highly-trained physicians and healthcare workers may be limited or nonexistent in low- and middle-income countries, creating unique barriers for children in need.