User:Kateraz

About Me
Hello! I am a Freshman at Rice University hoping to major in Computer Science and minor in Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities. My main focus at the moment, however, is on Pre-Medical studies, so I am looking towards researching in the medical field as well. I am very passionate about the disparities in health of various countries in the world. Through the creation of this Wikipedia userpage, I hope to expand my knowledge regarding medical care in different parts of the world and share the information I have acquired with others who have similar passions as I do. Currently, I am most interested in exploring the problem of poverty and its effects on medical conditions of children and the treatment of women around the world.

Please feel free to message me or post on my talk page if you have any suggestions on my work.

Health in Mali
Mali is one of the poorer countries of the world, yet there is so little information on Wikipedia regarding its state. I think there needs to be a more information regarding Mali's situations on health, as the country has been affected by poverty and diseases for a long time. I especially think more stress need to be placed on the health of women and children.

References to Utilize
Kunzel, W., Herrero, J., Onwuhafua, P., and Staub, T., Hornung, C. “Maternal and 	perinatal health in Mali, Togo and Nigeria.” European Journal of Obstetrics & 	Gynecology and Reproductive Biology 69.1 (1996) 11-17. Print.

Omer, Saad B., Richards, Jennifer L., Madhi, Shabir A., Tapia, Milagritos D., 	Steinhoff, Mark C., Aqil, Anushka R., and Wairagkar, Niteen. “Three 	randomized trials of maternal influenza immunization in Mali, Nepal, and 	South Africa: Methods and expectations.” Vaccine 33.32 (2015) 3801-3812. Print.

Generoso, Remi. “How do rainfall variability, food security and remittances interact? The case of rural Mali.” Ecological Economics 114 (2015) 188-198. Print.

Bove, Riley M, Vala-Haynes, Emily, and Valeggia, Claudia R. “Women’s health in 	urban Mali: Social predictors and health itineraries.” Social Science & 	Medicine 75.8 (2012) 1392-1399. Print.

Johnson, Ari, Goss, Adeline, Beckerman, Jessica, and Castro, Arachu. “Hidden 	costs: The direct and indirect impact of user fees on access to malaria 	treatment and primary care in Mali.” Social Science & Medicine 75.10 (2012) 	1786-1792. Print.

Gage, Anastasia J. “Barriers to the utilization of maternal health care in rural Mali.” 	Social Science & Medicine 65.8 (2007) 1666-1682. Print.

Mahe, Antoine, Prual, Alain, Konate, Madina, Bobin, Pierre. “Skin diseases of 	children in Mali: A public health problem.” Tropical Medicine & Hygiene 	89.5 (1995) 467-470. Print.

Jones, Heidi, Diop, Nafissatou, Askew, Ian, and Kabore, Inoussa. “Female Genital 	Cutting Practices in Burkina Faso and Mali and Their Negative Health 	Outcomes.” Studies in Family Planning 30.3 (1999) n.pag. Print.

Perez, Fredy, Ba, Hamady, Dastagire, Sayed G, and Altmann, Mathias. “The role of 	community health workers in improving child health programmes in Mali.” 	BMC International Health & Human Rights 9.28 (2009): n. pag. Web 10 	Sept. 2015.

Dettwyler, Katherine A. “Breastfeeding and weaning in Mali: Cultural context and 	hard data.” Social Science & Medicine 24.8 (1987) 633-644. Print.

Planned Work
There are only two sections of broad information listed in this article so far: "Health infrastructure" and "Health status". These two topics seem solid on the information they are supposed to provide, but currently there is too little information regarding these. So, I plan to include some subtopics underneath these two primary topics. Under "Health infrastructure", I plan to add Mali's conditions of health care and medical centers in the recent state (the statistics mentioned currently are mostly from pre-21st century). I also plan to bring to attention the destitute conditions in Mali regarding sanitation, poverty, and food, as I believe that all three can be related to health in some way.

Regarding "Health Status", I plan to include an extensive outlook on women's health and children's health, while providing a more broad general health. The current article focuses too much on HIV and AIDS, which is surprisingly not too much of a concern in Mali. I plan to focus on malaria (a much more prevalent disease), health of women in both their general lifestyle and in childbirth, and children's health.

Why Health in Mali?
Although I have made clear that changes must be made to the current article of "Health in Mali", the question of whether or not this topic is actually important has not been answered. To the general public, it may seem that a small country in Africa is everything but an important topic of discussion and concern. However, there are reasons why health in Mali is so crucial to understand, and the public's ignorance of Mali is precisely the reason why I plan to revise this article, as I feel that more people must be aware of Mali's conditions.

According to the World Bank Indicators, in 2010, over 40% of the population in Mali suffered from poverty, going over 50% in rural areas. Due to this, there are countless diseases and bodily stresses that those in poverty undergo. To further give a picture of Mali's population, only 33.6% of the adult population were literate. With little education and little food, those born in poverty are not likely to leave poverty.

Poverty and health care are fairly closely interrelated. A nation with a considerably high level of poverty signifies that the health of the citizens is neglected. With regards to health, statistically, there is only 1 physician per 10,000 people: a devastatingly low ratio considering the high number of people who need to be treated due to the constant threat of Malaria and poor hygiene. Considering Mali's current population, this means that there are only around 1500 physicians in the entire nation for 15.3 million people living in Mali.

When talking about the needs of the world in terms of health care, we often talk about India, China, South Africa, etc. However, I do not hear much of Mali, which seems to be in desperate need of care and help. I wish to proliferate this knowledge throughout the internet community by factually presenting evidence in the Wikipedia page.