[EQ] Towards a common definition of global health

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*

Emory Global Health Institute (Prof J P Koplan MD), and Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health (T C Bond PhD), Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; Duke Global Health Institute,

Duke University, Durham, NC, USA (Prof M H Merson MD); Public Health Foundation of India, Delhi, India (Prof K S Reddy MD); Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, Cuernavaca, Mexico (Prof M H Rodriguez MD); School of Medicine, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda (Prof N K Sewankambo FRCP); and Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA (Prof J N Wasserheit MD)

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?...”

 

“……..orders to be deemed a global health issue? 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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