Effects of Globalization on International Health
Judith Tata
HCSV 323
Professor L. Briggs
1/17/14
The Effects of Globalization on International Health Over the Past Century
Over the last 100 years globalization has had both positive and negative effects on global health and health care. We are irrevocably interconnected and anything that is one country’s concern becomes the one concern of all. The world population has exploded, we live longer, but we are not necessarily healthier.
Globalization has created challenges but also opportunities in combating diseases. Some of the most drastic changes have taken place during the last 50 years, and a few main factors to affect international health have been industrialization and global cooperation, climate and environmental changes, and changes in technology.
Industrialization and global cooperation
At the beginning of the 20th century, the currently developed countries’ economies grew rapidly. With the Industrial Revolution and the World Wars, people became more mobile and cheaper, faster travel helped infectious diseases to spread faster. However, with the invention of penicillin in 1928, many previously deadly diseases became curable. Hans Rosling’s TED talk New insights on poverty delivers a good overview of the change international health has gone through over time. His graphs show over a century of data on how the improved global economy and GDP correlates to increasing life expectancy and decreasing child mortality. What is also clear is that while the developed countries moved ahead, and his chart shows varying degrees of improved health in most nations, the developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa were left behind.
When the United Nations was formed in 1945 it was decided that there was a need for a global health organization within the UN. Consequently, the
World Health Organization was established in 1948, and it has been on the
1
forefront as a unifying entity and coordinator for improving international health.
When it was established, the top
HCSV 323
Professor L. Briggs
1/17/14
The Effects of Globalization on International Health Over the Past Century
Over the last 100 years globalization has had both positive and negative effects on global health and health care. We are irrevocably interconnected and anything that is one country’s concern becomes the one concern of all. The world population has exploded, we live longer, but we are not necessarily healthier.
Globalization has created challenges but also opportunities in combating diseases. Some of the most drastic changes have taken place during the last 50 years, and a few main factors to affect international health have been industrialization and global cooperation, climate and environmental changes, and changes in technology.
Industrialization and global cooperation
At the beginning of the 20th century, the currently developed countries’ economies grew rapidly. With the Industrial Revolution and the World Wars, people became more mobile and cheaper, faster travel helped infectious diseases to spread faster. However, with the invention of penicillin in 1928, many previously deadly diseases became curable. Hans Rosling’s TED talk New insights on poverty delivers a good overview of the change international health has gone through over time. His graphs show over a century of data on how the improved global economy and GDP correlates to increasing life expectancy and decreasing child mortality. What is also clear is that while the developed countries moved ahead, and his chart shows varying degrees of improved health in most nations, the developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa were left behind.
When the United Nations was formed in 1945 it was decided that there was a need for a global health organization within the UN. Consequently, the
World Health Organization was established in 1948, and it has been on the
1
forefront as a unifying entity and coordinator for improving international health.
When it was established, the top