Post 1
Morbidity is another term for illness. A person can have several co-morbidities simultaneously. So, morbidities can range from Alzheimer’s disease to cancer to traumatic brain injury. Morbidities are NOT deaths. Prevalence is a measure often used to determine the level of morbidity in a population. Morbidity is the condition of being ill, diseased, or unhealthy. This can include acute illnesses (which have a sudden onset and improve or worsen in a short period), as well as chronic illnesses (which can present and progress slowly over a long period). An example of an acute illness can be the flu, a broken arm, or a heart attack. Chronic illnesses are more like diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), or cancer. A person can live for several years with one or more morbidities. One morbidity may lead to another morbidity. Morbidity (CDC, 2016).
Mortality, on the other hand, is the condition of being dead. One usually hears of mortality in terms of the number of deaths in a population over time, either in general or due to a specific cause. It is important to recognize that morbidities may or may not lead to mortality. As an example, one could have terminal lung cancer but died of injuries after a road accident.
CDC, 2014). Knowing the morbidity and mortality rates can help in treatment plan development and health promotion and disease prevention programs. Actions will be taken to reduce or eliminate exposure to risks that might increase the chances that an individual or group will incur disease, disability, or premature death. Once morbidity and mortality have been identified, preventive efforts can result in more appropriate utilization of health services and improvements in health status. Primary prevention refers to efforts to eliminate health or functional problems at their source – that is preventing their occurrence. Procedures, such as immunizations, improving nutritional status, and increasing physical fitness and emotional well-being may be implemented to reduce the incidence of disease or render a population at risk not vulnerable to that risk.
Both concepts can be applied at the individual level or across a population. For example, a morbidity rate looks at the incidence of a disease across a population and/or geographic location during a single year. The mortality rate is the rate of death in a population. The two are often used together to calculate the prevalence of a disease — e.g., measles — and how likely that disease is to be deadly, particularly for certain demographics (Diffen, 2016).

Post 2
Morbidity is related to sickness/disease and can be applied to an individual or population in form of a morbidity rate. Mortality is related to death and the rate varies depending on geographic location, wealth, incidence of illness, age, and many other factors. Gathering reliable statistical data for morbidity and mortality rates can be difficult especially when reporting standards are poor. Although, collecting this statistical data is worthwhile as it is beneficial to leading to improving quality of life and preventing premature deaths (WHO, 2018).
According to a WHO report, 56.9 million global deaths in 2016, 40.5 million, or 71% were due to noncommunicable diseases. Mortality is often connected to infectious diseases and pregnancy/childbirth. In other areas cancer and cardiovascular illness may largely affect the older populations. It is possible for disease that have a high morbidity rate to have a low mortality, or vice versa and the rates may change (WHO, 2018). For example, HIV/AIDS spread rapidly during the 1980’s and had a high mortality rate but today we see decreased mortality rates due to the disease. With the use of documented morbidity and mortality rates, including the causes/spread, in the 1980’s and 1990’s great HIV prevention education and healthcare were developed. Today, both the mortality and morbidity rates have decreased tremendously as a result of successful prevention strategies. Although in less fortunate areas including area with decreased health literacy the spread of HIV is still a concern and mortality rates remain increased. Disease prevention and health promotion are the main goals of public health, a multidisciplinary field that focuses on population and communities, rather than individuals.
Reduction of morbidity and mortality and improving quality of life is an ongoing challenge for providers, organizations, and public health practitioners (Aschengrau & Seage, 2014).
Morbidity has a gainful benefit to study when developing health promotion strategies. As I stated previous a huge percentage of deaths are caused by noncommunicable disease. A major component of burden of illness for many individuals derive from chronic diseases. Therefore, to impact this burden preventative healthcare strategies specific to increased morbidity rate. The goals of prevention focus on prevalent disease which include attenuating the progression of morbidity, the development of disability, and the incidence of illness. Ultimately, maximizing the quality of life (Fried & Bush, 2008).

Post 3
What are the estimates showing where the United States ranked on infant mortality compared to other developed countries?