Global health is the health of the populations in the worldwide context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problems that transcend national borders or have a global political and economic impact are often emphasized. Thus, global health is about worldwide health improvement (including mental health), reduction of disparities, and protection against global threats that disregard national borders, including the most common causes of human death and years of life lost from a global perspective.
Global health is not to be confused with international health, which is defined as the branch of public health focusing on developing nations and foreign aid efforts by industrialized countries.
One way global health can be measured is through the prevalence of various global diseases in the world and their threat to decrease life expectancy in the present day. Estimates suggest that in a pre-modern, poor world, life expectancy was around 30 years in all regions of the world (mainly due to high infant mortality). Another holistic perspective called One Health can be used to address global health challenges and to improve global health security.
The predominant agency associated with global health (and international health) is the World Health Organization (WHO). Other important agencies impacting global health include UNICEF and World Food Programme (WFP). The United Nations system has also played a part in cross-sectoral actions to address global health and its underlying socioeconomic determinants with the declaration of the Millennium Development Goals and the more recent Sustainable Development Goals.
Global health employs several perspectives that focus on the determinants and distribution of health in international contexts.
Medicine describes the pathology of diseases and promotes prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
Public health emphasizes the health of populations.
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Health policy can be defined as the "decisions, plans, and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific healthcare goals within a society". According to the World Health Organization, an explicit health policy can achieve several things: it defines a vision for the future; it outlines priorities and the expected roles of different groups; and it builds consensus and informs people. Health policy often refers to the health-related content of a policy.
Health human resources (HHR) – also known as human resources for health (HRH) or health workforce – is defined as "all people engaged in actions whose primary intent is to enhance positive health outcomes", according to World Health Organization's World Health Report 2006. Human resources for health are identified as one of the six core building blocks of a health system.
A non-communicable disease (NCD) is a disease that is not transmissible directly from one person to another. NCDs include Parkinson's disease, autoimmune diseases, strokes, most heart diseases, most cancers, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, cataracts, and others. NCDs may be chronic or acute. Most are non-infectious, although there are some non-communicable infectious diseases, such as parasitic diseases in which the parasite's life cycle does not include direct host-to-host transmission.
Le cours présente l'enjeu mondial de la santé. Il aborde les défis posés par l'innovation biomédicale, les maladies infectieuses et neuropsychiatriques. L'approche interdisciplinaire intègre les SHS e
This course addresses the design of policies for Grand Challenges. It aims at providing a policy toolkit - about innovation, economic regulation and societal inclusion - while supporting students abou
This course develops, within the urban domain, a critical review of challenges/opportunities of the One Health concept, based on the inexorable link between human, animal, and ecosystem health.
Delves into the evolution of global health governance, focusing on WHO and philanthropic foundations' impact on public health policies.
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We have learned from the recent COVID-19 pandemic that the emergence of a new virus can quickly become a global health burden and kill millions of lives. Antiviral drugs are essential in our fight against viral diseases, but most of them are virus-specific ...
San Diego2023
Premature aging causes morphological and functional changes in the kidney, leading to chronic kidney disease (CKD). CKD is a global public health issue with far-reaching consequences, including cardio-vascular complications, increased frailty, shortened li ...
MDPI2023
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Multiple respiratory viruses, including influenza A virus (IAV), can be transmitted via expiratory aerosol particles, and aerosol pH was recently identified as a major factor influencing airborne virus infectivity. Indoors, small exhaled aerosols undergo r ...