Globalization and Global Health

Abstract

Along with the positive or negative consequences of the globalization of health, we can consider global health as a goal, responding to human rights and to common interests. History tells us that after the “microbial unification” of the world, which began in 1492, over three centuries elapsed before the recognition of common risks and attempts to cope with them in a cross-boundary effort. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the struggle against epidemics united countries, world health became a common goal, and considerable results were achieved. However, in recent decades the notion of health as a cornerstone of economic development has been replaced by the idea that public health and health services are an obstacle to the wealth of nations. Meanwhile, new common threats are growing: among them, the exacerbation of old infections and emergence of new ones, the impact of environmental changes, drug traffic on a world scale, and destructive and self-destructive violence. New and stronger empirical motives relate the interests of peoples to universal rights and to global health. The author concludes with some proposals for policies.