Test Your Knowledge on Global Health

Overview of Global Health

• Global health aims to improve health and achieve equity in health for all people worldwide.

• It is not to be confused with international health, which focuses on developing nations and foreign aid efforts by industrialized countries.

• The World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and World Food Programme (WFP) are important agencies impacting global health.

• One way to measure global health is through the prevalence of various global diseases in the world and their threat to decrease life expectancy.

• Disability-adjusted life year (DALY), quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), and mortality rate are measures of global health.

• Neglected tropical diseases are a diverse group of infectious diseases that are endemic in tropical and subtropical regions of 149 countries. They are variously caused by bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and helminths.

• Complications of pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death among women of reproductive age.

• Undernutrition impairs the immune system, increasing the frequency, severity, and duration of infections.

• The HIV/AIDS epidemic has highlighted the global nature of human health and welfare.

• The use of insecticide-treated bed nets is a cost-effective way to reduce deaths from malaria.

• Pandemics have an impact on global health.

• The U.S. Agency for International Development's new Global Health Research and Development Strategy 2023-2028 includes plans to coordinate with stakeholders in support of innovative global health product development and work with other agencies like the CDC and National Institutes of Health.Global Health Challenges Summary

• Approximately 80% of deaths linked to non-communicable diseases occur in developing countries, with diabetes and ischemic heart disease being the fastest-growing causes of disease burden.

• Violence against women is a major global health issue, with one in every five women facing some form of violence during her lifetime and low education and attitudes accepting violence as risk factors for being an offender.

• Global surgery is an emerging field within global health, with about 5 billion people lacking access to safe and affordable surgical and anesthesia care, and the National Surgical Obstetric and Anesthesia Plan (NSOAP) focusing on policy-to-action capacity building for surgical care.

• Multimorbidity is a growing public health problem worldwide, likely driven by the aging population and other factors, and puts major burdens on healthcare systems and contemporary economies.

• Human sperm counts have fallen by 62% in the last 50 years, are decreasing at an accelerating rate worldwide, and are likely a result of factors such as poor diets, endocrine disruptors, unhealthy lifestyles, and toxic forever chemicals.

• Global interventions for improved child health and survival include the promotion of breastfeeding, zinc supplementation, vitamin A fortification, salt iodization, hygiene interventions, vaccinations, and treatments of severe acute malnutrition.

• Many populations face an "outcome gap," which refers to the gap between members of a population who have access to medical treatment versus those who do not, and countries facing outcome gaps lack sustainable infrastructure.

• Commercial determinants of health refer to private sector activities that affect people's health positively or negatively, such as advertisements for unhealthy food.

• Hygienic measures to reduce the spread of infections and the promotion of breastfeeding are important global health interventions.

• Aging is a large global health challenge, with over 2 billion persons age > 60 estimated by the year 2050, making it a significant risk factor for chronic disease, frailty, and disability.

• Chronic ear diseases, such as chronic suppurative otitis media, can lead to hearing loss and may cause life-threatening complications, and the World Health Assembly urges member states to integrate strategies for ear and hearing care within the framework of their primary health care systems.

• Refugee urbanization has led to a growing number of people diagnosed with chronic non-communicable diseases.

• The Global Health Council suggests a list of 32 treatments and health interventions that could potentially save several million lives each year.Global Health: Key Issues and Organizations

• The public sector in Pakistan has a chronic shortage of and lack of access to basic medicines despite having access to medicines at a lower price than international reference prices.

• The allocation of funds in global health is often disproportionately allocated to alleviating a single disease, resulting in negative outcomes, according to journalist Laurie Garrett.

• The WHO estimated a shortage of almost 4.3 million doctors, midwives, nurses, and support workers worldwide, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

• The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how global health security is reliant on all countries around the world, including low- and middle-income countries, having strong health systems and at least a minimum of health research capacities.

• Climate change is undermining every dimension of global health monitored, according to a comprehensive annually scheduled study.

• Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been described as a leading global health issue, with 1.27 million deaths in 2019 attributable to AMR.

• Major trends in global health governance appear to be "towards more discretionary funding and away from core or longer-term funding," according to a study of select global health-related organizations and initiatives.

• The Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) is "a multilateral, multi-sector effort that includes 60 participating countries and numerous private and public international organizations focused on building up worldwide health security capabilities toward meeting such threats" as the spread of infectious disease.

• GHSA works through four main mechanisms of member action, action packages, task forces, and international cooperation.

• G7 partners and EU have made a collective commitment to assist 76 countries whereas the US committed to helping 32 countries to achieve GHSA targets for International Health Regulations (IHR) implementation.

• The Joint External Evaluation process, derived as part of the IHR Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, is an assessment of a country's capacity for responding to public health threats.

• Governments and inter-governmental organizations focused on global health include the WHO, UNICEF, and the World Bank, while non-governmental organizations include Doctors Without Borders and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.