The Modern Plague Analysis

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Often, the society that someone grows up in, determines what they will have access to and what challenges they will face. In more developed counties, primary care and prevention are automatic rights. Most individuals have access to these elements and often face chronic diseases as their cause of death. In comparison, infectious diseases are much more prevalent in developing countries and those of low socio-economic status. This aspect can be seen in Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues by Paul Farmer. He faces many different types of infectious diseases in the countries that he works in which can be a result of simple measures like lack of clean water, basic medications and overall primary care. This can be termed as "structural …show more content…
So the only option for them would be Layla's mother, however she cannot do so because she has high blood pressure. In addition to this, her parents also would not be able to afford the immunosuppressant's that her father would need to be on long-term (Hamdy & Nye, 2017). They also prioritize the need for a house and food, this is their first priority, not treatment. This is something that Layla doesn't have to face because she has all of those needs met and doesn't have to worry about something as simple as where she's going to get her next meal from. These struggles show the differences in disease outcomes based upon the resources that are available to each of the two characters. Based on the way that Layla's society is structured her family does not have the proper access to primary care that they would have needed to prevent her dad from needing a kidney transplant. Her dad is put in this situation because he was a migrant worker. In comparison, Anna has the resources and she can take it upon herself to make a decision ahead of time and prevent herself from having to face a disease before it's too late. She has the resources, both educational from her genetic testing and primary health care, as well as the financial means to do