The Importance of Global Health in The Modern World
The global health field addresses the quality of healthcare around the world, from developing nations to world powers. For residents of countries with strong healthcare systems, it can be tempting to wonder, why is global health important? When everything in your community is taken care of, it is easy to dismiss concerns in other parts of the world as other people’s problems. This is a short-sighted approach to healthcare, however. The world grows more and more connected every day, and that’s why global health should also be considered an important part of local health. Here are a few of the best reasons why global health matters to everyone, no matter where they are from.
Healthier Communities Around the Globe
The first benefit of improving global health is a humanitarian one. By investing in healthcare around the world, including in areas not capable of building the required healthcare systems on their own, the world becomes a healthier and happier place. Improving healthcare in developing nations offers the most opportunity to have a massive impact in terms of lives improved and lives saved. Developing nations are also not the only ones helped by global health groups. While much of their work is done in nations with the most need, global really means global, and even well-developed nations can benefit directly from global health work.
Reduced Risk of Spreading Diseases
There are more reasons to help nations in need than just kindness. Global health initiatives can help to reduce the risk of diseases spreading around the world. International travel means no country is truly isolated from another, and outbreaks in any nation have the potential to spread to areas on the entire other side of the planet when individuals are infected abroad then return home.
Increased Understanding of International Patients
Spreading global health awareness also makes doctors more capable of treating the patients they see on a daily basis. Customs and traditions vary around the world, so a doctor who is well taught in global health issues is in a better position to treat their foreign patients with caring and understanding, providing the care they need while also respecting the patient’s cultural norms.
Healthcare Talent Can Come From Anywhere
There is no way to know where the next great medical mind will be born, and if someone with a talent for healthcare is born somewhere that the healthcare and educational systems are not in place to nurture that talent, the world as a whole loses out. By increasing medical access around the world, global health workers make it easier for someone interested in healthcare to flourish, no matter where they are born, which in turn increases the chance that important breakthroughs for the entire world are achieved.