Global Health Flashcards
Define global health:
An area for study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving health equity for all people worldwide
What are communicable diseases?
Any disease that passes between people or animals - i.e. transmissible or infectious
e. g. COVID-19 (viruses spread faster due to global transport links etc)
eg. Polio Global Eradication Initiative
What is the issue with communicable disease in modern society?
Interconnected world
Faster spread of disease
New rules placed in one country = major impacts on others
What does this mean for controlling communicable diseases e.g. in a pandemic?
Therefore cannot control disease by solely acting on a national level
Why is COVID different from e.g. polio?
COVID = hitting home front of the WEST = more financially secure countries with higher incomes, more resources etc.
Polio mainly in third world countries
What are some non-communicable disease that global health needs to address?
e.g. mental health
Influenced by many large corporates e.g. fb, mcD, ig, etc.
Polio Global Eradication Initiative
How is global health currently regulated?
WHO - world health organisation
Specialised agency of the UN
Intergovernmental organisation aiming to uphold international peace and security
What are the aims of the WHO?
Attainment of all peoples at the highest possible level of health
Info from all countries passed onto WHO, this info is collated and organised appropriately
Appropriate measures taken
Governance
WHO – aim is ‘the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health’
International Health Regulations – describes role of national governments too
Is able to declare a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’
How can countries be grouped together?
Wealth
Infrastructure
Standard of Living
Whats the Human Development Index (or HDI)?
What is it comprised of?
Approach used by the United Nations (UN) to quantifying development (in general) and is a composite continuous value between 0.001 and 0.999 (usually provided to three decimal places).
HDI comprises 3 measures of development:
Knowledge - based on education and literacy
Healthy life - life expectancy
Standard of Living - income adjusted for local circumstances - based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)
Group countries into Very High, High, Medium, and Low
Used when drawing statistical comparisons
After each country is given an HDI value, how can they be grouped?
Very high = Norway, Ireland and Switzerland
High = Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago and Albania
Medium = Kyrgyzstan, Morocco and Guyana
Low = Mauritania, Benin and Uganda
Why is the HDI so useful?
HDI is used widely when drawing statistical comparisons.
What is also used, other than HDI?
HIC - high income country
LMIC - low and middle income countries
These are more objective
Delineates between settings based on an objective measure of wealth
What is meant by the global south?
Refers to countries where income tends to be low and economies are recently industrialising
Geographically = are around the tropics
Many of these countries have a colonial history
What is meant by the terms:
Third World =
Less economically developed countries =
Emerging markets =
Third World = In the era of the Cold War, countries that were aligned with NATO were deemed first world. Countries aligned with the USSR were considered second world. This term was originally intended to denote non-aligned national state actors
Less economically developed countries = A term that has been vaguely used to categorise countries on then basis of their gross national income (GNI). This term has now been removed from routine use by the World Bank
Emerging markets = An economic term suggesting that a country is about to engage with global markets. This term remains commonly used in business with pharmaceutical companies often using it to describe multiple countries where business opportunities are ancipated
What is WASH?
Water, sanitation and hygiene
Water - safe water for drinking, washing, and domestic activities ( 30% of world lacks)
- Fundamental human right (UN)
- Water that does not have a significant threat to health over a lifetime of consumption
- Infectious disease: water-borne, water-washed, water-based, water-related, diseased caused by poor sanitation
Sanitation - safe removal of waste (toilets and waste disposal) - (60% of world lacks)
Hygiene - health promotion activities that encourage protective healthy behaviour practices
Benefits greater together than implemented separately
What are some examples of globally prevalent WASH-related diseases?
Diarrhoea Malaria Schistosomiasis Trachoma Intestinal helminths Japanese encephalitis Hep A Other types of poisoning
Why is diarrhoea an issue?
Leading cause of mortality and morbidity in children under 5 - in low-middle income supply
Associated with lack of WASH
