Globalized Health Risk…

Globalization in Health

We can see that as borders disappear, people and goods are increasingly free to move, creating new challenges to global health. These cannot be met by national governments alone but must be dealt with instead by international organizations and agreements.Every year, the same ritual takes place at changing locations in the Western world. While the heads of the eight leading industrialized nations meet at their annual G8 summit to discuss the global state of affairs, a wide variety of organizations and protesters meet in parallel to decry what they see as the negative effects of globalization.

One major problem is the increasing internationalization of health risks. How-ever defined, this term has many dimensions, including economic, technological, political, social, scientific and cultural aspects. The links between globalization and health are complex and globalization is a multifaceted phenomenon that can affect health in myriad ways. Its consequences can be either direct, at the level of whole populations, individuals and healthcare delivery systems, or indirect, through the economy and other factors, such as education, sanitation and water supply. Given the enormous complexity and breadth of the issues, my post cannot hope to cover the entire range of topics that link globalization to health. Instead, we focus on those risks to health and health care that are related to central aspects of the globalization process, namely trade, and travel.

Increased trade and foreign investment through liberalization can increase economic growth. Growth can be used to sustain investment in necessary public goods, such as health care, education, women’s empowerment programs and so on. Especially in poorer countries, growth may also reduce poverty, leading to desirable change in the determinants of health. Improved population health, particularly amongst the world’s poorest countries, is increasingly associated with improved economic growth, and so the circle virtuously closes upon itself.

Although increasing trade is certainly good for economies, it also leads to a globalization of health risks. Important examples of such risks include tobacco, alcohol, global epidemics of non-communicable diseases and trade in health services. There are studies proving that in poor countries, there is an increased in consumption of alcohol and tobacco. Lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), lung diseases, diabetes and many other tobacco-related ailments, will occur in developing countries. There is a strong relationship between alcohol consumption and liver cirrhosis, some cancers, and most causes of injuries and violence, although minimal amounts of alcohol are sufficient to reduce the risk of CVD.

Trade and movement of infected cattle and poultry across national borders may also have contributed to recent outbreaks of mad cow disease in the Northern hemisphere and avian influenza in Asia.

Travelling in this era became more convenient and more affordable which result in far-reaching air travel, aided by improvements in aircraft technology that allow longer non-stop flights, facilitates the spread of communicable diseases. It is entirely possible that a person in the early stages of an infectious disease could be halfway around the world in 12–15 hours and thus function as a vector for that disease, aiding its spread, perhaps into vulnerable, non-immune populations. The recent epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is the best contemporary example of the rapid spread of a hitherto unknown and virulent viral pathogen through travel of infected humans. SARS was first recognized in February 2003 in Vietnam where cases of atypical pneumonia with an unknown cause began to appear. By the first week of May 2003, 30 countries on six continents had reported a total of more than 7,000 probable cases with more than 500 deaths.

As pointed out above, globalization will not go away. It is therefore important to anticipate future challenges for global health and to consider how to react effectively.

References:

Globalization and risks to health, by Tikki Pang & G. Emmanuel Guindon

Block 4.2 lecture notes titled Globalization in Health.