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5.6: Student Resources

  • Page ID
    258074
  • This page is a draft and is under active development. 

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    Key Terms/Glossary

    • Global health: An area for study, research, and practice that places a priority of improving health and achieving health equity for all people worldwide that transcends borders; the study, research, and practice addresses possible health issues that could undermine the global population beyond territorial boundaries. 
    • Global pandemic: a health crisis that can lead to illness and the possible death of individuals across the world.
    • Pandemic: A highly contagious disease that can quickly move across wide-spread geographic locations that could lead to large populations being effects through illness and/or death.
    • Public health: Health of a population within a specific community or country.
    • Vector: living organisms that transmit disease.

    Summaries

    9.1 Introduction - What is Global Health?

    Global health can be included in a variety of subfields, such as political science, international politics, globalization, economics, and even geography. Since global health can be studied in an array of fields, it creates a wide variety of definitions of global health, usually tied to political viewpoint. Global health needs a definition that would allow a researcher to measure common factors for communities, states, and countries. Global health disparities are evident throughout the U.S., as people who live in one state will have a longer life expectancy than others. Additionally, global health disparities are happening all around the world, as the populations in most countries in Africa and South Asia are struggling to live long and healthy lives. These countries are suffering from political uncertainty that exacerbates their inability to have basic healthcare. We must ponder that as we all live on this earth, what responsibility do wealthier countries have to other countries that would ensure all people will have a long and healthy life?

    9.2 Background - Historical Global Health Crises

    Global health pandemics have a long history. The Black Plague was the largest pandemic, as almost 60 percent of the European population was eradicated. In more modern times, the Spanish Flu had origins in the United States. Unlike the Black Plague, the Spanish Flu spread around the world through military deployments in the First World War.  Currently, we are still under two global pandemics - HIV/AIDS and COVID-19. Through examining the various global pandemics in history, we must consider the role we all play in keeping everyone safe.

    9.3 Theories and Concepts - Approaching Global Health Inequalities from A Variety of Theoretical Perspectives

    There are three different theoretical lenses to approach evaluating global health inequities. These are theory of unintended consequences of social action, the theory of the social construction of reality, and the theory of social suffering. It becomes difficult to focus on solving health problems when there are plethora of social problems that are having a direct effect on preventing individuals from living a healthy life.

    9.4 At Home and Abroad: How COVID-19 Changed All of Our Lives

    COVID-19 came out of nowhere that completely changed our lives. The global response was slow, which caused a global quarantine that lasted for 1-2 years (depending on your location). The ramifications of COVID-19 changed how government provided aid to citizens. Individuals also have changed how they want to live their life - there is a craving for a better work-life balance. We are still living in the era of trying to figure out what the new normal is post-COVID-19.

     

    Suggestions for Further Study

    Websites

    Journal Articles

    Elnaiem, A., et. al. (January 2023), Global and Regional Governance of One Health and Implications for Global Health Security, The Lancet 401(10377). Doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01597-5.

    Documentaries

    Books

    • Clinton, C. and D. Sridhar (2017).  Governing Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why? New York: Oxford University Press.
    • Gostin, L. O. (2021).  Global Health Security. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
    • Merson, M. H., R. E. Black, and A. J. Mills (2012).  Global Health: Diseases, Programs, Systems, and Policies 3rd Edition. MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

    Review Questions

    1. All of the following were major pandemics except the following:
      1. Spanish Flu
      2. AIDS
      3. Black Death
      4. Tuberculosis
    2. Which of the following are the implications of social suffering?
      1. Socioeconomic and sociopolitical forces can cause the disease
      2. Social institutions make the suffering worse
      3. Families and communities suffer, not just individuals
      4. Hard to determine if it is a social problem or a health problem
      5. All of the above
    3. What are some of the issues surrounding vaccinations?
      1. Distrust of countries who provides vaccines
      2. Conspiracy theories against vaccinations
      3. The low cost of vaccinations
      4. The high cost of vaccinations
    4. All are the definitions of global health except the following:
      1. Global health is the area of study, research, and practice that centers on achieving health equity for all people.
      2. Global health is about the care and well-being of your own citizens.
      3. Global health understands health issues that transcend borders and governments with a call of action to help the people.
      4. Global health as health issues transcends borders and governments deserve a global response that is beyond any individual government or institutions.
    5. What were some of the long-term effects of COVID-19:
      1. Trust that people have in our own government
      2. Everything went back to normal
      3. People have changed how they live their daily lives
      4. A & B

    Critical Thinking Questions

    1. Why would there be varying definitions of global health?  How does the varying definitions reveal about the society that adopts the definition?
    2. What responsibility do wealthier nations have to the rest of the world to ensure the health of its residents?
    3. How has globalization made the world safer and/or more unsafe from global pandemics?
    4. How have you changed your life and/or outlook on life due to experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic? Do you see any changes in our community due to the COVID-19 pandemic?