“Prevention is better than cure.” Out of a country’s health budget, a large proportion should be diverted from treatment to spending on health education and preventative measures. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?
In this world, a significant number of people are suffering from different diseases due to a lack of appropriate health teachings and precautionary actions. It is believed that the government is spending most of the health budget on treatment measures rather than preventive. I will agree that government should spend more on preventative actions as this will help to reduce the occurrence of diseases and the bulky cost of treatment.
To begin with, health education of the public will assist in overcoming ignorant behaviours that leads to diverse diseases. Unhealthy behaviours such as uncleanliness, lack of exercise, bad nutrition and many more are known to be the root cause of some illnesses, and they can be prevented through health teachings of good health practices. For example, education on good hygiene and immunization is known to reduce the occurrence of some diseases such as typhoid and tetanus in South Africa. If the government is encouraged to focus on health education, it will therefore reduce the prevalence of certain diseases in our country.
Moreover, research has shown that the treatment of diseases consumes a huge amount of money compared to preventive measures. This implies that making government utilize the health budget on precautionary measures will lead to cost-effectiveness. For instance, treatment of certain diseases such as HIV consumes an enormous amount of money as affected patients have to be on long-term treatment, the majority of which are funded by the government. If prevention is therefore put in place, such money can be used for another project and indirectly be used to improve the economy of the country.
In conclusion, going by the quote’ prevention is better than cure, I totally agree that the government should focus most of their health budget on prevention methods rather than treatment. This will reduce the prevalence of diseases and improve cost-effectiveness.
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