The effect of globalization on health systems and individuals is complex. At first glance, many people would say that globalization has had an overall positive impact on peoples' health. In many ways, that is true. For instance, global transportation and the communications revolution enable rapid response to epidemics and catastrophes, saving thousands of lives. But there also is a downside to the health and well-being of people as a direct or indirect result of globalization. The flip side of the above example is that due to the rapid mobility of people across borders, the spread of infectious diseases is a threat to everyone, particularly the poor. Nils Daulaire, MD, MPH, wrote in his article “Globalization and health”: “Today, no microbe in the world is more than 24 hours away from the gateways of every industrialized country, and what incubates today in the tropical rain forest can emerge tomorrow in a temperate suburb.”

According to Richard Feachem, PhD, DSc, author of “Globalization is Good for Your Health”, globalization has had an overall positive impact on health, especially for people in developing nations. In the area of economics, particularly free trade in capital, technology and ideas, he believes that globalization, economic growth and improvements in health go hand in hand. “Economic growth is good for the incomes of the poor, and what is good for the incomes of the poor is good for the health of the poor,” he wrote.

But some developing countries are left out of the global economy. According to Daulaire, 20% of the world's population live in absolute poverty with an income of less than $1 per day and half the people on the planet live on less than $2 a day. The author stated that those living in absolute poverty are five times more likely to die before reaching 5 years of age than those in higher income groups.

One of the negative sides of globalization is the increase in emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. For example, tuberculosis was thought to have been eradicated in the 1950s, only to re-emerge in the 1980s. One of the reasons for this is the increasing resistance to drugs. AIDS also is a great concern worldwide.

According to Greg Martin, MD, MPH, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London, and editor-in chief of the new journal Globalization and Health, there are numerous ways to look at this downside of globalization and one way is to divide it into communicable and noncommunicable diseases. For example, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus, a communicable disease, has the capability of rapidly spreading around the world.

“Fortunately, there was a vigilant response from the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as individual nation states and the epidemic was controlled,” Martin said. 

Disponível em: <http://bit.ly/2p4Tk70>. Acesso em: 12 mar. 2018. (Adaptado)

Among the positive effects of globalization on health systems and individuals argued by the experts in the text, we can mention: