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Mya Blain

Mr. Taylor

Honors English I

22 March 2019

Ensuring Healthy Lives and Wellbeing

The goal for the United Nations is to ensure people are living healthy and have wellbeing.

They want to increase the amount of people living comfortably, happy, and with no health

problems. Some of the targets are to decrease the amount of deaths from diseases, trying to get as

many people as possible to get vaccines, and achieving universal health. Over 100 million people

are suffering from either HIV, Malaria, or AIDS. A massive amount of those people that are

suffering from diseases like Malaria were never vaccinated for them. Many people also don’t

take care of themselves or the people around them, which is the first step to achieving universal

health. Achieving universal health is important because, we want everyone to be healthy and live

a long life. Researching these diseases is very costly, so to reach our goal, a lot of money will

have to be invested.

Many people in our community, country, and around the world are suffering from deadly

diseases like HIV, AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, and many more. These diseases have killed

millions of people. Since the start of HIV, 77.3 million people have lived this disease (“Good

Health”). Over 940,000 people had died of AIDS in 2017 (“Good Health”). In the matter of 5

years, Malaria has affected and killed over 6.2 million children under the age of 5

(“CDC-Malaria”). Unfortunately, there is no cure to HIV or AIDS. ART, antiretroviral therapy,

can prevent any more complications, but it cannot remove the virus from your body. A person
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can be cured from Malaria if the right medications are used at the right time (“CDC-Malaria”).

The drugs may not work if it is too late and the disease has already become immune to your

body.

The United Nations chose this as one of their goals because having good health is

essential to life. Any problems with your health can lead to death, and the goal is to decrease the

death rate from being unhealthy. There are vast amounts of people in our community that are

suffering from issues with their health. This is not just a local issue, it is occurring everywhere

across the planet. A big start to this goal is vaccinating your children. When you get your

children vaccinated, they have a very small chance of getting the disease they were vaccinated

for. Vaccinations prevent people from getting diseases, not entirely, but it lessens the chance of

getting the disease. (“Enduring Health”). Another good way to keep yourself healthy is

exercising. It can help you get rid of fat and build up muscle. If you are not at a healthy weight,

working out can cause you to burn numerous calories and bring down your weight. Developing

diseases like diabetes is possible if you do not exercise or maintain a healthy weight. Exercising

regularly and having good eating habits can also build up a good, protective immune system.

Your immune system is what fights the bacteria in diseases (“Health”). This is why exercising

and eating healthy is extremely vital to having a good, healthy body. Practicing good health

habits and improving a person’s wellbeing is the key to living a long, healthy life.

Doctors are doing everything they can to achieve the goal of universal health coverage,

and keep the patients suffering with these diseases alive. They are doing prodigious amounts of

studying and research on these diseases that are killing millions. Finding a cure and medications

for diseases like HIV and AIDS is crucial. It is abundantly hard to treat the patient and keep them
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alive when there are no cures or drugs that are efficient. Doctors are also doing research on the

children that are catching these diseases and dying earlier than expected (“Chapter 2”). This is

why vaccinations are extremely important, they can save your life. There are no vaccinations for

AIDS or HIV, that is why the death rate for them is so high (“HIV & AIDS”).

In conclusion, the United Nations chose a significant goal that is vital to achieve. Deadly

diseases like AIDS, HIV, and Malaria are killing to many people and the goal is for that to come

to an end. Reaching this goal is going to require lots of cooperation and helping each other out. A

way for the public to cooperate is to take care of their own health first, and help the people

around them develop good health. Donating money to the fundraisers that are collecting money

for the research needed to be done will help out tremendously as well. Even creating a fundraiser

would be exceptionally helpful. It’s going to take a lot of work to reach this goal, but if

everybody works hard, we can do it.

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Works Cited
“Good Health and Wellbeing: Why It Matters.” ​Goal 3​, 20 Mar. 2019,

www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Goal-3.pdf​.

“Health - United Nations Sustainable Development.” ​United Nations​, 20 Mar. 2019,

www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/health/​.

“HIV & AIDS.” ​United Nations Population Fund​, 20 Mar. 2019,

www.unfpa.org/hiv-aids​.

“Ensuring Health and Well-Being: a Self-Assessment Tool for Health and WellBeing Boards.”

Apse​, 20 Mar. 2019,

www.apse.org.uk/apse/index.cfm/research/current-research-programme/ensuring-health-a

nd-well-being-a-self-assessment-tool-for-health-and-well-being-boards/​.

“CDC - Malaria - About Malaria - FAQs.” ​Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,​ Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, 20 Mar. 2019,
www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/faqs.html​.
“Chapter 2: Promoting Good Health.” ​AccessMedicine​, 19 Mar. 2019,
www.accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=2129§ionid=192010113