Globally, it is said that government expenditure on curative health far outweighs preventive health care. While I do not concur with this budgetary habit, the assertion is unforturnately true. There are various ways to prevent disease and health education is a significant part. This is precipitated by several factors such as lack of political will, economic outlook, and societal behaviour and norms, in general.
Historically, public health scholars have repeatedly shown that the major determinant of a nation’s wellbeing is ‘government willingness’. Since government is the highest financial resource and power in a a country it is expected to be at the forefront of dictating policies and taking measures to solve the health problems of the populace. In the early 80’s, malaria, an endemic disease plaguing most countries, was almost eradicated from the planet due to strong political backing from powerful nations of the “United Nations” through implementation of preventive stragedies such as the continuous education of the people, environmental sanitation and widespread fumigation to kill vectors of the malaria parasite. However, malaria still survive and thrive in Nigeria, largely due to the docility of the establishment. Inevitably, this led to spending more on treating the illness.
Another reason for the apparent focus on treatment instead of avoiding the scourge of the disease can be attributed to economic calculations and systemtic corruption. Despite being a good idea, some sickness are economically more feasible to treat than to prevent. Using the same example as above, it is cheaper to treat malaria with drugs than to prevent it entirely. Thus, leadership would rather focus on the former. Related to it, is corruption, were leaders divert health funds, increasing the likelihood of disease spread.
Furthermore, societal norms and cultures are a limiting factor to increasing spending on public health. Cultural practices involving marriage within same family(consanguinity) leads to increase risk of genetic diseases. Such communal behaviours are hard to nip in the bud via regulation in spite of government’s overwhelming power.
In conclusion, it is widely accepted as fact that countries around the world expend more resources to treat than to prevent disease. Regretably, it can be explained from the prism of citizens’ cultural attitudes, corruption and unfavourable economic ideology, and poor political awareness.