The Importance Of Global Health

In the past globalization has often been associated as an economic process. However, nowadays it is finally associated with other contributing factors such as culture, technology, the environment, societal issues, and politics. According to Kelley Lee, it is a "process that is changing the nature of human interaction across a wide range of spheres" (Lee, 2000). In general, the complex notion of globalization has brought new opportunities as well as risks to the human population. In the context of global health, globalization is both a source of good and bad. As defined by Beaglehole, global health is the “area for study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide”

First, in the short term, due a rise in the average global temperature, Jason Anderson asserts that a direct correlation between climate change and a rising incidence in natural disasters exists (Anderson, 2006). Moreover, natural disasters create global health emergencies due to an immediate lack of food, sanitation, water, and basic health care. Due to the population’s vulnerability, there is great potential for communicable diseases preceding natural disasters. To illustrate, after the December 2004 tsunami that struck Indonesia, in the Aceh Province, because survivors drank from contaminated wells, 85% of residents were diagnosed with diarrhea and cholera within the following two weeks (WHO, 2006). Furthermore, due to the increase in the average global temperature, vector-borne diseases such as Lyme disease, malaria, dengue fever, and yellow fever have been reemerging around the world. Greg Guest attributes this increase to a resurgence of factors related to globalization such as urbanization, changing agricultural practices, and most of all deforestation (Guest, 2005). Remarkably,

Although cities are sources of innovation, economic growth, and development, they are also hotspots of health hazards, crowdedness, poverty, and inequality. As a result, urban populations have developed into gateways for infectious diseases due to the presence of a large crowded population, inadequate drainage and sanitation, and lack of clean water. In addition, due to the migration of people from the rural to urban areas, globalization has led to an increase in the incidence of tropical neglected diseases. Due to the conditions that prevail, these diseases have the potential to spread much more rapidly within the city. To illustrate, in a study conducted in in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, due to the migration of the rural population to large cities such as Johannesburg and Pretoria, there has been an increase in the vector borne disease schistosomiasis amongst the urban population (McMichael, 2000) Similarly, due to the poor sanitary facilities in the urban Brazil, filariasis (elephantitis) has also spread to large towns in north-eastern Brazil due to prolific presence of stagnant pools of contaminated water which serve as breeding grounds for the culicine mosquito (McMichael, 2000). Furthermore, although globalization has led to the availability of low-cost airlines, trains, and automobiles which enable people to travel faster, farther, and more efficiently, this in turn can also lead to