The Significance of Global Health Policy in Foreign Policy and Diplomacy
Sandra Meria Keavey
Nova Southeastern University
College of Health Care Sciences
Department of Health Science
Christine Legler PA-C, DHSc, MS
Global Health Policy - DHS 8095
Assignment Week 3
January 24, 2016
The Significance of Global Health Policy in Foreign Policy and Diplomacy
Introduction
Throughout history, the awareness of other cultures has advanced as man as reached out beyond his boundaries in travel, exploration, and trade. As part of this extension into other cultures, with their foods, manner of dress, traditions and business opportunities have included the exposure to new illnesses. Diseases or illness that is local to
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This means looking after the well-being of their population, particularly the young and the vulnerable. “Global health diplomacy brings together the disciplines of public health, international affairs, management, law and economics and focuses on negotiations that shape and manage the global policy environment for health” (Global Health Policy, n.d.). The relationship between health, foreign policy and trade is at the forefront of global health diplomacy.
Global health problems such as HIV/AIDS and Ebola with their high morbidity and mortality have are labeled as threats to national security and foreign policy interests (Michaud & Kates, 2013). The risk of influenza pandemic annually with the significant impact on economies as well as people has led to a high level of international cooperation. In 2014, in a report to CNBC Anmar Frangoul stated the cost to the global economy of SARS is estimated to have been $54 billion, according to the World Bank. The estimate is that a 'severe flu pandemic' could cost over $3 trillion, nearly five percent of the global gross domestic product. The high economic impact of any global health event with its subsequent impact on the social, civil, and personal cost makes it worth the effort for countries to cooperate in preventing outbreaks and pursuing
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The goals to eradicate extreme poverty/hunger, provide universal primary education, promote gender equality, decrease child mortality and improve maternal health, fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases and to ensure environmental sustainability were not fully met but did achieve significant success. The MDG’s acted as an impetus for the UN to set larger and more ambitious goals called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The focuses of the new goals are broader addressing three dimensions of sustainable development - economic, social and environmental (From MDGs to SDGs, WHO launches new report, 2015).
The development and execution of these goals represent global health diplomacy in action. The expansion of goals and progress to improve the health and lives of the impoverished is the significance of global health diplomacy. Improving the health and well-being of a population creates a baseline upon which international relationships can grow based on achievement. These efforts create new opportunities for other endeavors, in areas beyond health.
Over the course of history, illnesses and pandemics have had a tremendous economic impact. Economic historians often struggle to calculate the economic impact of these events however, due to the lack of accurate records. The exception is the flu epidemic of 1918, which had a long lasting and significant impact on the world economy. In a ten month period stretching from late 1918 into early 1919, over 40 million people worldwide died as a result of the flu epidemic, about 4% of the world’s population. In comparison, the AIDS epidemic has killed 25 million people since 1981.
Marble, A. (2010). Reforming the Global Health System: Lessons from Asia: An interview with Nigel Crisp
I have chosen the Global Health Pathway to further analyze the essential theme from a practical point of view and to recognize vital connections and relations with the coursework I have taken at Santa Clara University. The fundamental theme of the pathway emphasizes on the universal enhancement of public health, lowering inequalities, and prevention of chronic diseases. The overarching connection between the Global Health Pathway theme and the coursework I have taken is fundamentally providing global awareness of public health issues from a socioeconomic, environmental, and biological perspective to the general public. Courses such as Public Health Science 1: Human Health and Disease and Biology 179: Cancer Biology can illustrate a vital connection with the pathway theme. For example, Public Health Science 1: Human Health and Disease course focuses on the improvement of avoiding preventable diseases by designing specific interventions to target certain chronic diseases that are impacting a specific population. The course relates to the Global Health Pathway theme by highlighting multiple public health issues from a socioeconomic viewpoint and environmental perspective by providing awareness to the general population and finding solutions to prevent public health issues. In addition, the Biology 179: Cancer Biology course concentrated on the molecular perspective behind cancer and the processes in acquiring the disease. The course emerges with the Global Health Pathway theme by learning preventable processes to combat cancer and providing awareness to individuals from a biological perspective to prevent one in developing the disease. Both courses introduce a phenomenon of providing awareness of a certain public health issue to the ...
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While the moral backing for public health in its current state may be sound, what many researchers fail to understand is that the many moral failings of its predecessors that color the legacy of public health internationally and at home. As discussed in the chapter “Colonial Medicine and its Legacies” within the textbook Reimagining Global Health arranged by Paul Farmer, before the conception of global health there was international health which sought to distribute health as a good horizontally across international, political lines. Under the framework of international health, public health workers became agents of a cold war enmeshed in the fiscal, geopolitical, and territorial struggles between two hegemons rather than the holistic value of community health. While international health as a framework has largely been abandoned, much of its rhetoric can be found within our current framework of public health such as the enumeration of certain parts of the world as "1st world", "2nd world",
According to Macfarlane et al. (2008), institutions of high-income countries tend to define global health in terms of their “working relationships with low and middle-income countries.” Furthermore, the authors pointed out that global health problems tend to be framed and addressed through the lens of industrialized countries. They also found that recent definitions of “global health” in the literature are predominantly written by authors from institutions in high-income countries (Beaglehole & Bonita, 2010; Koplan et al., 2009). According to Frenk and Moon (2013), global health should be defined by two key elements: its level of analysis, which involves the entire population of the world, and the relationships of interdependence that bind together the units of social organization that make up the global population (i.e. nation states, private organizations, ethnic groups, and civil society movements). Would you agree with critics of global health who claim that it is a modern incarnation of colonial
Influenza, an innocent little virus that annually comes and goes, has always been a part of people’s lives. Knowing this, one would not believe that it has caused not one, not two, but three pandemics and is on its way to causing a fourth! The Spanish flu of 1918, the Asian flu of 1957, and the Hong Kong flu of 1968 each killed millions of people worldwide, causing mass terror. People were mad with fear, and for good reason, as friends, family, neighbors dropped dead like flies. And yet, as soon as the deaths ceased, the forgetfulness set in… until very few know about these pandemics. These pieces of history may have faded from memory, but with the upcoming threat of an avian flu which can jump from human to human, people must learn from the past to combat the future.
The health care industry is positioned for the global market place. It is expected to grow exponentially in health-related services for the elderly. China’s population of individuals over sixty years old is expected to grow to one third in the next twenty-five years. Though their culture view aging somewhat differently than in United States, they are interested in the attractive senior living options established here. Senior care encompasses private care facilities, home health care, products, drugs and medical equipment. As the largest health care market in the world American companies have made significant global inroads over the last two decades. These businesses are positioned to offer additional services directed at retirees, and children who will be responsible for their parents and potentially their grandparents as well.
Studies had shown that, racial disparities, political and socioeconomic status are one of the most determinants of the use of preventive services. Whereas, public programs of international development agencies during this period were also targeting means of eradicating specific diseases such as malaria, cholera, yaws, smallpox, influenza, cancer and the like. After several years of investment in the vertical interventions, preventable diseases remained a major challenge. Therefore, the international health agencies including experts around the globe began examining other alternative approaches to health improvement which brought ‘’health for all’’ through World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to practioners and the global health planners at the International conference on primary health care in Alma Ata in Kazakhstan. Relative to this, the conference also intended to revolutionize and reform previous health
There are many inequities in this global world; should there be such gross inequities in the health of people around the world? We hear words like health gap, health care inequality and sustainability. What can be done to eliminate the health gap, health care inequities and maintain sustainability? The World Health Organization (WHO) and other organizations, private and public are working towards eliminating these disparities. Healthy People 2020 are one such goal that has achieved considerable progress in attaining sustainability in the pursuit of global health goals (Gostin et al., 2013). The health gap can be minimized through health strategies. Among them are essentials for all in this global world; clean air, water, healthy food and adequate housing with hygienic living conditions. Primary, secondary, tertiary prevention and care services should be available to all who seek health care services.
It is the only social justice health related program that has direct influence on the legality of health issues in government. The goal of the organization is to improve the health of the public and achieve equity in health status. The organization has created a strategic map of what its prospective goals are. The map consists of three circles overlapping each other in a triangle formation, all intersecting in the middle. In the middle lies “The Healthiest Nation”.
To achieve vision 2030, health sector is a key pillar through provision of accessible, quality and relevant health services to have a healthy workforce. Increasing allocation of resources, improvement in health personnel and facilities, better health management are among the strides made. However, challenges still exist due to infrastructural constraints, inadequate human resources, increasing cost of medical care, financial constraints, HIV/AIDS Pandemic, increasing non communicable diseases and high poverty levels.
London, England. The.. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine n.d., Session 5: The role of the state. in global health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, England. Ricci J.
...tly should attend to the most urgent and highest needful problems to reduce the risk of developing those issues. Health priorities include reduction of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), decrease the road traffic accidents rate, reduce the infectious disease and vaccine preventable diseases, prevent transmit of HIV infections and reduce the poverty by minimizing gap between rich and poor. In addition, this health problems should be addressed in accordance to WHO guidelines, Millenniums development goals and according to other international health reporting standards. Moreover understanding the burden of disease is important where it helps to measure weightage of disease in a specific nation with that of the global situation. So supportively this will help to prioritize the urgent health problems in the country which will support the prevention of those health issues.