Why it is important to consider health at the global level?

Straight to the question: I see that health is a basic human right and every time when we talk about human rights we have to take the whole global context into account. Human rights are the basic elements of humanity and wellbeing. Nevertheless, as well as regarding to other human rights, certain health difficulties have focused into certain areas and possibilities to maintain health are very unequal in different global areas.

Thus, I see this is mainly an ethical question. We here in developed countries have a responsibility to chare those financial, equipmental and information sources to balance the gab between countries and areas. As Ilona Kickbusch (2002) is saying: "Its (meaning global health) goal is the equitable access to health in all regions of the globe".

While I see this mainly as an ethical thing, I often think it is so sad that we in Westerns countries really do not understand the truth of global world untill it is seen as a threat to us. For example pollution problem, toxic substances and unsafe goods and products seems to be no problem to us as long as they stay on the other side of the world. Somehow it is so sad that we see a swine flu as a huge global threat now when it is really affecting Western countries, even though the death rates show that disease is really a tinpot in a global point of view. Contrary, we have not done our best to prevent diarrhea in children of developoing countries, even though the death rates of this disease are certainly higher. Idea of global health demands motivation to come out of the own dear nest and see more widely and more open-hearted. For the best of all of us.

Health should bee seen as a global issue also because alone we are unable to achieve anything, not even the local good, for this world is already globalized. We need reorientation in policy and strategy, as well as massive political and financial commitment in both developed and developing countries (Kickbusch 2002). But I hope that the great source of motivation for this would not be the self-indulgent one but the one that sees that we all need health, even though we have unequal possibilities fot that in global context.