People strive to accumulate knowledge and skills to compete and achieve their goals within economies. Basically, health often eludes from the human focus and becomes unprioritized by considering this Ted Talk essay on “Parasitic Worms Hold Back Human Progress. Here’s How We Can End Them” by Ellen Agler. However, health has a significant influence on human development, and it can serve as a reliable foundation for personal growth or restrain productivity and the ability to perform. Therefore, both education and health are key to success and well-being because these concepts are tightly intertwined.
Poor Health and Parasitic Worms
Firstly, poor health depresses individuals` development and productivity. In this case, health issues can generate additional and hidden challenges for achieving targets at school, university, and the workplace, resulting in low productivity indicators. For example, the most astonishing fact is that lower school attendance among children and performance at the workplace among adults can be caused by parasitic worms that live in the stomach (Agler 00:00:10-00:01:08). Basically, health issues constitute unobvious, latent factors that can reduce the efficiency of well-designed education improvement plans. In turn, there is a need for an integrated approach to ensure sensibility toward the indirect effects of health issues. Thus, such complex logic must be applied by policy-makers, local authorities, and consultancy companies in development plans.
Human Activity and Social Interaction
Health serves as a foundation for human activity and social interaction. Even though both health and education are components of human capital, health must be a matter of particular importance because it serves as a principal condition for acquiring and applying skills and knowledge. For instance, the research on the disease`s effects on development found that healthy childhood impacts the production of other human capitals, and weak health diminishes adults’ productivity as well (Bleakley 308). The main point is that, in order to be effective in the workplace, individuals must not only possess skills and knowledge but also be in good health. Therefore, health is an indispensable intermediary that enables individuals to attain personal targets and create an impact on their societies.
Health Literacy
The shaping of health literacy must be a part of educational programs at all levels to reach diverse target groups and minimize health risks. The development of competencies to understand and follow basic medical instruction and maintain hygiene must be developed continuously through education and public communication. Basically, health literacy is knowledge and skills in the healthcare context, which enables individuals to make sound decisions about their health (Okan et al. 6). In this case, one of the essential aspects of health literacy is the prevention of disease spread among vulnerable social groups. Moreover, health literacy must obtain more attention in the frame of formal and informal education programs. For instance, the awareness on the topics of HIV and AIDS is almost five times higher among women who obtained post-primary education in comparison to less educated (GPE Secretariat par. 7). In turn, education raises general health literacy and strengthens the human ability to integrate it into daily practices. Thus, solid healthcare literacy can serve as a reliable mechanism for disease prevention and control.
Summing Up
In conclusion, the importance of an integrated approach to addressing education and healthcare challenges is evident. Although education and qualifications are often seen as primary components of productivity, these concepts are intermediated by health. In this case, the prevention of diseases may have a noticeable impact on individual lives and community well-being. Hence, educational programs must serve as platforms for the development of healthcare competencies, raising the level of public awareness in this field.
Works Cited
Agler, Ellen. “Parasitic Worms Hold Back Human Progress. Here’s How We Can End Them.” TED, 2019, https://www.ted.com/talks/ellen_agler_parasitic_worms_hold_back_human_progress_here_s_how_we_can_end_them.
Bleakley, Hoyt. “Health, Human Capital, and Development.” Annual Review of Economics, vol 2, no. 1, 2010, pp. 283-310, doi:10.1146/annurev.economics.102308.124436.
GPE Secretariat. “How Education Plays a Key Role in the Fight Against AIDS.” Globalpartnership.org, 2018, https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/how-education-plays-key-role-fight-against-aids.
Okan, Orkan et al. International Handbook of Health Literacy: Research, Practice and Policy Across the Life-Span. Policy Press, 2019, pp. 5-10.