PHM-Exch> Towards a common definition of global health?

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC) <ruglucia at paho.org>
crossposted from: EQUIDAD at listserv.paho.org


 *Towards a common definition of global health*

**

Jeff rey P Koplan, T Christopher Bond, Michael H Merson, K Srinath Reddy,
Mario Henry Rodriguez, Nelson K Sewankambo, Judith N Wasserheit, for the
Consortium of Universities for Global Health Executive Board*

*
*

*The Lancet, Volume 373, Issue 9679,  6 June 2009*

 URL: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current

“….Global health is fashionable. It provokes a great deal of media, student,
and faculty interest, has driven the establishment or restructuring of
several academic programmes, is supported by governments as a crucial
component of foreign policy,1 and has become a major philanthropic target.
Global health is derived from public health and international health, which,
in turn, evolved from hygiene and tropical medicine.

 However, although frequently referenced, global health is rarely defined.
When it is, the definition varies greatly and is often little more than a
rephrasing of a common definition of public health or a politically correct
updating of international health. Therefore, how should global health be
defined?...”

 We should not restrict global health to health-related issues that
literally cross international borders. Rather, in this context, global
refers to any health issue that concerns many countries or is affected by
transnational determinants, such as climate change or urbanisation, or
solutions, such as polio eradication. Epidemic infectious diseases such as
dengue, influenza A (H5N1), and HIV infection are clearly global. But global
health should also address tobacco control, micronutrient deficiencies,
obesity, injury prevention, migrant-worker health, and migration of health
workers. The global in global health refers to the scope of problems, not
their location…..”
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