Unit 2 
Globalization

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