We are all aware of taking care of our health, especially with COVID but what about the health of the people around us, our community, our city, state, country, and even the world? With the onset of COVID, we were all made aware of how interconnected we are but also how our global health truly is. However, large-scale health is frequently brushed aside against more pressing and noticeable issues such as world hunger, war, poverty, etc. Still, our health is just as important especially how health can help with some of the problems listed above. Often these issues hit the most vulnerable of us.
When we think of health we usually think of diseases mainly the flu and common cold along with other common illnesses that are usually mild and resolve themselves in a few days, however, this roster used to contain diseases such as measles, rubella, smallpox, tuberculosis, tetanus, polio, and many more. Many of these have been nearly eradicated in most parts of the world and the case of smallpox; was wiped out completely however other diseases hadn’t joined the ranks mainly due to a lack of resources and availability an example of this is polio which is close to being eradicated but lingers in Afghanistan and Pakistan and one of the threats is polio gets out of these areas and into other countries mainly those with weak healthcare infrastructure and unleashes the terrors of polio back onto humanity. Another disease that we nearly know how to treat is tuberculosis or T.B. Tuberculosis also called the white plague or consumption has been a plague on humanity since ancient times and has claimed up to a billion lives, however, once the invention of antibiotics in the 1900s tuberculosis was a disease that used to kill thousands to a lingering memory however, T.B. has been put in the backseat which is not ideal since this is a disease that we know to treat yet we let it linger with even multi drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis arising which the WHO states, “MDR-TB remains a public health crisis and a health security threat. Only about 2 in 5 people with drug-resistant TB accessed treatment in 2022.”
However, another aspect of diseases is something called Neglected Tropical Diseases, or NTDs for short. The World Health Organization or WHO defines NTDs as, “A diverse group of conditions that are mainly prevalent in tropical areas, where they thrive among people living in impoverished communities. They are caused by a variety of pathogens including viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi, and toxins, and are responsible for devastating health, social and economic consequences”
But why? Why should we have to care for the health of people in areas where it pays the least relevance to our lives? The health of the world is our health as diseases as simple as the common cold to something as complex as cancer should be our concern given that it affects not just our physical health but other aspects of our lives as stated by the American University of the Caribbean, “Global health is important because it affects all populations on our planet. As human beings, we are inexorably interconnected: the health of individual human beings is influenced by the global health of people, animals, and the environment. The increase in global communication, trade, and travel in recent decades has provided benefits, but it has also created problems. The movement of people facilitates the spread of infectious diseases, which can lead to epidemics or even pandemics. Look at how the devastating COVID-19 pandemic—a glaring global health issue—gained momentum until it touched every corner of the globe. Not all global health concerns are related to the movement of people. Obesity, for example, has nothing to do with contagion, but it is a key global health concern and is often referred to as an epidemic: it deteriorates individual health everywhere and is a risk factor in numerous non-communicable diseases”
Additionally, it is also morally unjust, seeing how millions of us have to suffer through these often preventable and easy-to-treat diseases which would be affecting us too if it wasn’t for us investing in our public healthcare and health infrastructure and proper education and investment, these plagues can be placed in a medical history journals and books picked up only by medical historians, professionals, and students cramming late at night for their exams.
