What is Global Health?  

Oleh:

Benatar, Solomon ; Upshur, Ross

Jenis: Article from Books - E-Book
Dalam koleksi: Global Health and Global Health Ethics, page 13-23.
Topik: Health; State of Health Globally; Improving Global Health; The Medicalization and Monetization of Health
Fulltext: What is global health.pdf (177.39KB)

Isi artikel

To profess interest in global health is one of the latest trends in medicine, and many universities, especially in North America, are developing Departments or Centers of Global Health (McFarlane et al ., 2008; Drain et al ., 2009 ). The rapidly proliferating spectrum of new organizations, alliances and funds to address global health issues has generated a challenging new “global health landscape”( Global Health Watch 2 – People’s Health Movement, Medact and the Global Equity Gauge Alliance, 2008). But it is neither entirely clear what is meant by “global health,” nor how this term is being used by a range of actors. On the one hand we need to ask if it is: (a) a description of the medically measurable health status of all individuals globally (a medically defined state of affairs); (b) an assertion about (or aspiration to) the state of health of all throughout the world (an activist agenda); (c) about providing medical treatment to all globally who are suff ering from medically defined diseases (an extended biomedical approach to health); (d) a description of how health services are, or should be, structured and governed worldwide (a governance of health issue); (e) about measures to improve health governance and reduce disparities in health and health care across the globe (a global social justice issue); or (f) reference to the quest to sustain a healthy planet (an environmental health concern). On the other hand we could ask if it is merely a new “in vogue” term for what was previously called international health or whether it is truly a recognition of what global health means in a post-Westphalian world in which diseases know no boundaries and the lives of all people are of equal moral worth. And then of course we need to ask who are the major players setting the agenda in the field – only academics and others in wealthy countries, or also those whose lives and health are adversely aff ected by unspeakable injustices driven by now recognized seriously fl awed economic policies that have sustained and intensifi ed poverty and miserable living conditions for so many? In this chapter we highlight some of the key conceptual issues involved in situating our contemporary understanding of global health.

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