Global Health: What's in it for US? Kathryn S. Brown Abstract
A new report, America's Vital Interest in Global Health , released in June by the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Board on International Health, calls for increased U.S. foreign health care spending to fund research and education about diseases of the developing world, a global surveillance system to spot environmental changes and emerging disease conditions, public and private sector partnerships to distribute vaccines and drugs overseas, and a new government body to help coordinate these efforts. The report argues that, in an increasingly global society, the United States can't afford to ignore its neighbors' problems, for economic as well as social reasons. In the developing world, epidemics of diseases such as cholera, malaria, and dengue fever stem from climatological changes and human behavior, particularly increased urbanization. Drug resistance is another global health problem: in some countries, roughly half the infections caused by certain streptococcus , staphylococcus , and mycobacterium strains of bacteria are drug resistant. And demographers estimate that the number of adults ages 45 and older in the developing world will double over the next 30 years, which means the occurrence of chronic conditions prevalent in older adults, such as heart disease, depression, and Alzheimer's disease, will rise. The IOM report urges the U.S. government to fund clinical trials and chronic disease research in developing countries. Similarly, it lobbies for more collaboration between international scientists and education for health specialists in other countries. While some strides have been made in controlling emerging diseases, a comprehensive global surveillance system does not exist. The IOM report emphasizes that developing such a system would protect populations at home by forecasting disease outbreaks. The report also supports a multi-tiered pricing scheme, in which U.S. companies would offer vaccines cheaply to developing countries, and asks the government to support the efforts of drug companies selling products overseas. Because there is no single U.S. government body responsible for coordinating global health efforts, the IOM report proposes creating an entity to be named the Interagency Task Force on Global Health. Representing health and government agencies, the task force would be a strategic leader, coordinating global health projects and recruiting partnerships with academia, industry, and international agencies.
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