Supporting Global Ecological Integrity in Public Health - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages While such developments are partially true there is also another side to the story. While the advanced nations of hemispheric West have had benign consequences as a result of globalization, key human development parameters of most Third World countries have fallen proportionately. Hence, it is difficult to present a blanket view of the impact of globalization on public health. In light of this fact, this essay will attempt to attain a nuanced understanding of globalization’s overall effect on public health outcomes across the world, looking at how globalization and free trade affect both advanced post-industrial and developing nations. This is done by way of perusing authentic scholarship on the subject, looking at such issues as globalization and how it affects public health.
The litmus test for the efficiency and effectiveness of any public health system is its performance in a crisis situation. Civil societies have come to expect basic protections at the time of these crises. Such emergencies also test a government’s true ability to act under pressure. In other words, “they define a states capacity to protect its population while exposing its vulnerabilities to political upheaval in the aftermath of poorly managed crises” (Gorin, 2002). In the context of economic globalization at the turn of the new millennium, more than ever before, the general public demand transparency and accountability in global public health systems during medical and natural disasters. To gauge the robustness of public health systems in this new globalization paradigm, we need to study recent cases of acute public health emergencies and how they were seen in terms of global response.  
The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and Hurricane Katrina are particularly relevant to this analysis.  Hurricane Katrina was special in that the U.S. government and FEMA, after delaying for days in a hurried and unorganized response to the hurricane locally and nationally, accepted international aid, a rare event in modern times. ...Download file to see next pages Read More