Our country’s well-being is connected to the health of people all around the world. Just like education, investing in health helps people become stronger and can break cycles of poverty and political problems. This is important for the development of our country and the world. For example, HIV/AIDS has caused a lot of suffering in Africa, affecting many families and making it hard for countries to grow economically. In Russia, economic problems and social issues have caused life expectancy for men to go down by 10 years. This affects how many children are born and makes it harder for the economy to grow. These examples show how health problems can affect peace, money, and how countries work together.
New diseases can also spread quickly around the world. For instance, SARS spread across countries in a short time, showing how fast diseases can become a global problem. Other diseases like Mad Cow Disease and monkeypox have also appeared in new places, affecting people and animals.
The IOM helps improve global health by studying how to reduce sickness and disability in poor countries. They also study new health problems that could affect many countries. Their work focuses on infectious diseases, which are big threats to health worldwide.
Infectious disease
Infectious diseases don’t care about borders or politics. They can affect anyone, anywhere in the world. These diseases can spread through things like food, animals, and goods that move between countries. The Microbial Threats to Health report from 2003 talks about how these diseases are a big problem worldwide. It says that both natural and intentional threats (like bioterrorism) are becoming more dangerous. The report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in the United States looks at how ready countries are to deal with these diseases. It shows that the U.S. and other countries need to do more to prepare for outbreaks.
The report also looks at how new diseases, like SARS, have appeared and how old ones, like measles and whooping cough, have come back. It says that the U.S. needs to improve its health system to handle these threats better. This means investing in research, training doctors, and sharing knowledge with other countries. The report calls on the U.S. to help poorer countries improve their ability to fight diseases. This includes giving them money, helping with research, and teaching them how to handle outbreaks. Overall, it’s clear that everyone needs to work together to protect against infectious diseases and make sure we’re all prepared for future outbreaks.
| Cause | Rank | Estimated Number of Deaths |
|---|---|---|
| Respiratory infections | 1 | 3,871,000 |
| HIV/AIDS | 2 | 2,866,000 |
| Diarrheal diseases | 3 | 2,001,000 |
| Tuberculosis | 4 | 1,644,000 |
| Malaria | 5 | 1,124,000 |
| Measles | 6 | 745,000 |
| Pertussis | 7 | 285,000 |
| Tetanus | 8 | 282,000 |
| Meningitis | 9 | 173,000 |
| Syphilis | 10 | 167,000 |
A good surveillance system is very important to find and track infectious diseases, both in the U.S. and around the world. In 1996, the Executive Office of the President. Advised by its National Science and Technology Committee, said that Americans weren’t being protected enough from new infectious diseases. They declared that the country and the world didn’t have strong enough ways to watch, react to, and stop infectious diseases. They asked for a stronger plan to fix this. In response, the Department of Defense set up the Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (GEIS) in 1997. After a few years, the people running GEIS asked the IOM to check how well it was working. The report, “Perspectives on the Department of Defense Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (2001),” said that GEIS is well organized and meets what the President asked for. It also said that GEIS is a good way to protect U.S. military and civilian health, as well as health around the world. The report gave some suggestions, like hiring more people who know about tracking diseases, teaching more people, and working with health groups better. It also said the government should give more money to GEIS to keep it working well.
Prions are different from viruses and bacteria that cause most diseases. They are an unusual shape of a normal protein found in mammals. Discovered in 1982, prions seem to be linked to a group of deadly brain diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), which include “Mad Cow Disease.” Normal tests for diseases don’t work well for TSEs. There’s no cure or reliable way to find TSEs before someone dies. For over ten years, scientists tried to make a test to find prions, but most didn’t work. In 2002, the U.S. Department of Defense started the National Prion Research Program with $42.5 million. They asked the IOM to learn about TSEs and say which research should get money first. The report, “Advancing Prion Science: Guidance for the National Prion Research Program (2003),” said that finding a way to test for prions before someone dies will be slow unless we learn more about how prions work and the normal protein they come from. The report also said that the U.S. doesn’t have enough money, labs, or scientists who know about TSEs. Working with other countries could help learn more about TSEs.
Improving care in the developing world
Brain disorders affect a lot of people in poorer countries—about 250 million—and this number might get bigger as people live longer. These disorders include epilepsy, stroke, schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, mental disabilities, cerebral palsy, and autism. But in these countries, hospitals and clinics mostly worry about diseases that spread easily between people.
The report says that poorer countries should open centers where people can learn more about brain disorders and do research. These centers should work together with places in richer countries. The report also thinks there should be world programs to learn more about brain disorders in poorer countries and find ways to help.
It’s very sad when a mother, baby, or newborn dies, no matter where it happens. While these deaths are not common in rich countries, they happen a lot more in poorer countries. Every year, there are about 515,000 mothers who die, 4 million babies who die before they are born, and another 4 million newborn babies who die. Most of these deaths happen from late pregnancy to the end of the first week after the baby is born. Every year, more than 4 million babies are born with birth defects, which are a major reason why newborn babies die.
Two reports, “Improving Birth Outcomes: Meeting the Challenges in the Developing World ” and “Reducing the Impact of Birth Defects: Meeting the Challenges in the Developing World ” talk about ways to make things better. The first report says that women’s education and how much money they have can affect how well their baby turns out. It also talks about the main reasons why mothers and babies die and how we can make sure more babies are born healthy. It gives some ways that are not too expensive to help babies be born healthy. The report says that every birth should have someone there who knows how to help.
The second report talks about how we can make sure fewer babies are born with birth defects. It says we can do this without spending too much money. The report thinks we should find out more about why these problems happen and check babies before they are born to see if they might have a problem.
Conclusion
Global health and infectious diseases are big challenges that affect people all over the world. These diseases can easily spread from one place to another, affecting everyone. It’s important for countries to work together to find, watch, and respond to these diseases well. Reports and studies say it’s very important to have good systems to watch diseases and be ready for new problems. Spending money on global health not only saves lives but also makes economies stronger and keeps things more stable. By working together and focusing on learning, stopping problems before they start, and making sure everyone can get healthcare, we can make the world safer and healthier for everyone.