The Effects Of Globalization On Health & Medicine

Humans have always been curious about each other and looked for ways to exchange things and ideas. As a result, we have globalization. Interaction and integration in different countries are the goals of globalization. The process of globalization has effects on the environment, on culture, on economies, on policies, and on health in all over the world. Nowadays, people's lives have been improving. More and more people are not only focusing on their wealth, but also caring about their health. Healthy life is a hot topic in our society. People are very particular about food and exercise to get and maintain a healthy body. Many factors could cause a body disease like heredity, bacterial infections, or accidents. Sometimes we can avoid to get the diseases, but sometimes it is inevitable.

Have you ever heard about Middle East Respiratory Syndrome disease (MERS)? MERS is a viral respiratory disease caused by a noble coronavirus. According to the data from World Health Organization (WHO), this disease was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012, and about 36% of reported patients with MERS have died until June 2015. There is no effective medicine to solve this problem so far. In May 30, 2015, a Korean man became China's first confirmed MERS case. He carried with MERS disease and flew to Hong Kong, ignoring the travel warnings. Since his arrival, it evoked fear in the whole country. There were about 18 people who contacted closely with the Korean man, and they were forced to be isolated. Because no medicine could cut off the pathogen, people felt extreme panic during that time. Viruses could transfer quickly from people to people, even animal to people. Because we have widespread contact with the outside world, one small virus can spread effortlessly throughout the world, meaning that one little virus may cause a big disaster in an area.

Resource sharing has a directly effect in the globalization on health. After the acceleration pace of globalization, international academic exchange becomes more popular. In medical areas, we could gather the top specialists from all over the world when a new virus has been found in one area. Every specialist has different knowledge backgrounds and they would have come up many different ideas. Group work will be more effective than an individual work. It's easier to solve the problems and it saves time in figuring out the problems. It also could improve the overall level in medical area.

In 2004, there were earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Many countries actively recruited nurses, doctors and some medical facilities to disaster area, and people tried their best to reduce the casualties. In this case, we can see the increasing mobility of health professionals across borders. In some developing countries, many local people died because they didn't have professional doctors or unadvanced facilities in their poor area. In order to solve this problems, many developed countries sent their professional doctors, nurses and medical equipment to the poorer countries. Also, the patients could travel abroad to access a better health care if they can afford to. According to the database from the government, more than 52000 Canadians travelled abroad for healthcare in 2014. But how about the other patients who don't have the chance to fly overseas to obtain better quality healthcare? People can use some new technologies like internet to provide health services across border and remote the region within the countries.

Have you ever eaten herbs as the medicine? In China, herds have been used as the medicines for a long time. There are more than 6000 species herbs in use. When people got sick in the old days, they followed the prescription and mixed many kinds of herbs. Once Chinese people opened their door and welcomed the world, Chinese medicines became popular. The article "An Introduction to Chinese Herbs" by Subhuti Dhurmananda indicates that a practitioner of Chinese medicine will design a specific formulation for an individual patient, which might be changed frequently over a course of treatment. Many medical cases show Chinese medicines are sometimes more effective than Western medicines. Then the Chinese medicine goes to the international stage. Nowadays, many doctors would like to use the combination of the Chinese traditional and western medicine. Western medicines are focusing on how fast the patient get heal, but Chinese medicines are more focusing on how to overcome a disease' s root.

In conclusion, globalization likes a strong wind, and every country is affected by it. Globalization is a hot topic whose advantages and disadvantages for people and countries should be discussed. Although globalization is brings risks the very nature our society, it also garners opportunities, there's no doubt that globalization brings us a lot of benefits in the medical area. In the past two decades, SARS, HIV, Polio, and West Nile Fever has been frequently headline news. It reminds us that a small virus can have a devastating impact on the quality of life of individuals and communities around the world. Globalization provides us with an excellent platform to discuss the medical problems from all over the world. People have more opportunities to get a better health care. This could save many people's lives, especially in the developing countries. In general, people should realize the benefits in health and medicine from globalization. No matter how extremely complex the phenomenon of the globalization is, it will give meaningful contributions to the future.

References:

1. Lynn Schroth, Dr. P.H. and Ruthy Khawaja (2006). Globalization of Healthcare P19­P28.

2. Percivil M Carrera and John FP Bridges (2014). Globalization and Healthcare: Understanding Health and Medical Tourism.

3. Maud Mte Huyner, Pim Marterns and Henk BM Hilderink (2005). The Health Impacts of Globalization: A Conceptural Framwork.

4. Subhuit Dhurmananda (1996). An Introduction to Chinese Herbs.