Globalization & the spread of disease

Globalization brings forth a lot of things. Commonly associated; economic development, technology transfer. What we tend to forget is that globalization had its foot print as early as 2 millenniums ago. Fast forward to the 21st century and the pace of globalization like everything else moves at an astonishing pace.

Flip side of the coin? environmental damage, cultural dilution are the 2 issues that get much of the publicity. But hidden behind both issues and growing at a steady pace, the spread of disease.

This is especially so with the prevalence of air travel. The classic example at hand would be SARS, how they had to trace each and every person on the plane and because people of different nationality go on to the plane and do transit travels, disease gets spread to all parts of the world.

Example 2 would be the prosperity of a country and the aggressiveness of its tourism board. This country host quite a few world events on an annual basis. F1 for instance. And where the rich men flock to play, the pretty hookers are sure to follow. Granted that, the spread of disease (sexually) might not have such a huge impact given that it’s mainly the foreign rich that hook up with the foreign hookers. So another instance where it hits closer to home, Chinese nationals. You’ll see them at the red light district. I was even told that the china nurses do moonlighting a few street from their hospital!

With the rampant spread of disease, which isn’t always physically detectable, it’s hard to tell if the person next to you is a carrier of 1 or another condition. Thus there are several NGO that are promoting safe sex. Things might have changed from this decade to the next, but the old saying prevention is better than cure still stands.

Moving into HIV, I personally know 2 people who are positive. While I do not see their downsides, I would say they’re getting along fine with life upfront. The unspoken struggles and pain behind closed doors, I can only imagine. The constant need to check T cell counts, and daily medication serves not only as daily life preservation but also the daily dose of reality.

The horrible thing about that disease is that it’s permanent. In this part of the world, there’s no insurance coverage for the disease. Hepatitis B, which is also infectious, and possibility sexually transmitted, and might cause liver damage in the long run. However the former totally kills your immunity system. Also unlike Hepatitis B, there’s no vaccine for it. Lastly in Asia, Hepatitis B carriers are about 15-20% of the population and more often than not it’s inherited from the parent and thus does not carry the stigma of a HIV patient. Mobility and Mortality rates are also way higher.

And unlike the 70s/80s where less was known about the disease. People just knew there was no cure and that death came knocking much fast. People were scared into using condoms as the best measure of prevention. Came the 90s/00 where more information’s available and people learn that while you’ll die form it. Life preservation is still possible and all those scary pictures are end stage full blown Aids. And humans never like to think of unpleasant too far into the future. Carnal pleasures def take 1st place. So off came the condoms and up went the figures.

Globalization is definitely not within our control, no amount of protest will slow down its pace. The vices it’s brings however, can be reduced through education and funding of NGOs that promote its cause. With the sharing of scientific information/research we can only hope a cure is in it for the near future.