An Introduction to Global Health Delivery
The passion to be a force for change, to work on the positive side of globalization, and to be part of a movement for human rights has called many young people to the field of global health. This passion stems from the knowledge that the world is not okay. Impoverished people are suffering and dying from treatable diseases while the wealthy live well into their 80s and 90s. Before the 21st century, people living in countries marred by slavery, colonialism, resource extraction, and neoliberal market policies had little access to health care. Public health in the 19th and 20th centuries focused on low-cost prevention programs instead of advancing the human right to health. In the mid-1990s, as the AIDS pandemic swept the African continent, an activist movement sparked new investment in the delivery of health care. This movement emphasized the need for a constant supply of drugs, good laboratories, and trained health workers to mitigate health disparities. This book captures the momentum for the delivery of care that began in the AIDS era and the launch of the Millennium Development Goals through the Sustainable Development Goals. The global health era in this book is defined as beginning with the AIDS activist-led fight to move from prevention only to the delivery of comprehensive health care. By focusing on equity and social justice, An Introduction to Global Health Delivery: Practice, Equity, Human Rights fills a much needed gap and positions global health as a field set to fulfil the universal right to health.