Today, more than 2% of the global population lives in a different
country than they were born in. Two percent doesn’t sound like a lot, but
when that percent is turned into an actual number, it becomes much more
significant. That two percent represents more than 200 million people who
are living in their non-native country. That’s not even including
tourists and short term visitors, just foreign-born people. This means
that there are lots of people exploring the world, educating themselves, experiencing
other cultures, maybe bettering their lives. Globalization has made
travel possible and easy to almost everyone on the globe, giving them access to
the world around them. It has made communication and business multiple
times easier and more efficient, but it has also brought along some nasty
friends.
The cross-continental
travel of people has provided a perfect opportunity for diseases to reach all
across the world. Commodities, products, and food can all transport
diseases along their travel routes as well. With the increasing
population and number of tourists and refugees diseases are spreading
rapidly. Countries are becoming exposed to diseases that they never even
knew existed before they all of a sudden have an outbreak on their hands.
These diseases can include anything from the common cold to AIDS or
Ebola.
Because travel time has become so short, people may not know that
they are infected when they leave their home or even when they reach their
destination. The incubation period of most diseases are now longer than
the time it takes to travel the whole way around the world. This makes
diseases sly and invisible and very hard to detect until they emerge, which is
often too late.
Disease control, like
vaccinations, has helped developed countries prevent widespread disease
outbreaks, but disease control plans are not installed in every country around
the world. This limits the ability of disease control to actually work to
its full extent. Diseases can also be spread through animals and products
as well as people, making them even more difficult to control. Tuberculosis
is a disease that America, Australia, and many European countries have
successfully controlled and almost gotten rid of. Many undeveloped
countries though still experience many deaths because of it. In 1993,
tuberculosis was considered a global emergency by the World Health
Organization. Many migrant-receiving nations have seen a larger number of
tuberculosis cases in the immigration population than in the native population,
because of the immigrants from countries where tuberculosis remains a public
health problem. Developed countries are seeing many more cases of harmful
diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS due to migrants as well.
Sources:
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/38/12/1742.full#sec-1
http://www.nap.edu/read/11588/chapter/3#24
