7/21/2019 Why We Should Care About Global Health Status

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Why We Should Care about Global Health Status

We sometimes read in the news media in the United States about outbreaks of new or rareinfections in some far-off corner of the planet. Most recently, an outbreak of MERS in Saudi

Arabia resulted in !" deaths around the #lobe $as shown on a table on a %enters for &isease

%ontrol webpa#e'

. While it took new diseases awhile to tra(el across the planet in the earlytwentieth century, the ad(ent of mass air tra(el and me#a-container shippin# has made it far

easier for parasites, bacteria, and (iruses to be transmitted to those who li(e thousands of miles

from the initial outbreak. Animals $especially primates' transmit new diseases to each other aswell as to humans, and bacteria and (iruses mutate into new strains. Meanwhile, antibiotic

resistance is increasin#.

A parasitic disease carried by sandflies called Visceral Leishmaniasis ) affectin#

 predominantly impo(erished e*uatorial re#ions ) has now spread (ia those sandflies to Southern

Europe and beyond. %o-infection with Visceral Leishmaniasis and + is on the rise in Africa.

While ill /ates has made polio elimination a priority, new cases in 0akistan and Africa

$particularly Somalia' are underminin# this eradication #oal. &isco(ery of a strain in sraelfound in sewa#e sites but not humans ) and belie(ed to ha(e first ori#inated in 0akistan before

tra(elin# elsewhere ) was reported on Au#ust 11, 1"! on a webpa#e of Scientific American.1

Multi-dru# resistant tuberculosis $M&R-2' ) initially found primarily in +-infected

indi(iduals in Africa ) has spread to most countries includin# the United States. Accordin# to aWorld +ealth 3r#ani4ation report of 1"1, nearly 5"6 of all M&R-2 cases are in ndia, %hina,

and the Russian 7ederation.!  ndia had a particularly hi#h rate of +-2 co-infection with .8

million reported cases as reported in 1""! in the Archives of Internal Medicine.9

As presented in the 1" thriller mo(ie, :%onta#ion; $written by Scott <. urns',

epidemics can spread world-wide in a (ery short time. Since the #lobal influen4a outbreak of=>-=1", health care practitioners ha(e understood that epidemics know no national borders.A stron# immune system can enable resistance to many common infectious diseases. 2herefore,

impro(in# health status across the #lobe benefits the entire human community.

7/21/2019 Why We Should Care About Global Health Status

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1 %enters for &isease %ontrol Webpa#e, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome $MERS'?

http?@@www.cdc.#o(@corona(irus@mers@2 Maron, &7. &oes sraels Bew 0olio 3utbreak 2hreaten /lobal Eradication EffortsC D3nline article of

Au#ust 11, 1"! Scientific American? http?@@www.scientificamerican.com@article.cfmCidFdoes-israels-new-polio3 World +ealth 3r#ani4ation. $1"1'. Global Tuberculosis Report 2012. SB G =8>=19H59H"1?

http?@@www.who.int@tb@publications@#lobalIreport@#tbr1Imain.pdf 4 %orbett EJ et al . $1""!'. 2he /rowin# burden of tuberculosis? /lobal trends and interactions with the + epidemic.

 Arch Intern Med  5!$='? ""=-"1. See http?@@archinte.Kamanetwork.com@article.aspLCarticleidF1HH1H