While prevention is the key to managing one’s health, only so much can be done to keep it that way. Although some factors, such as exercise, depend on an individual’s capabilities, there are still other aspects of maintaining a healthy life that are often beyond their control. Because of the inability to control every variable that goes around in our lives, taking time to understand what goes around is instead vital in knowing the risks one might be facing. This is where the study of global health comes into the picture.
Traditionally, doctors focused on local factors that might have caused their patients to become sick or injured. Unfortunately, with so many diseases going international, such as the recent COVID-19 case, that’s no longer an option. Because of this, doctors must work hard with other people in different disciplines to find solutions that’ll help address many health concerns that might be affecting an individual.
The Importance of Global Health
When it comes to global health, there are many factors that are uncontrollable by individuals.
The first and most obvious factor of all would be pandemics, disease outbreaks. COVID-19, SARS, HIV, all of these are examples of epidemics that an individual cannot control. Most of these all originate from animals, transferred to humans through the consumption of wild and exotic meats or other methods. Unfortunately, cures for these issues cannot be made until symptoms have sprung up, and the virus has been identified. Even then, medicines and vaccines may take a while or never come at all. The only way, then, that these issues are addressed is to educate the uneducated about the dangers of wild meat, how it spreads, and the likes.
Another factor that cannot be controlled would be environmental factors. One of the elements, climate change, is thought to be the most dangerous factor of them all because it poses the biggest threat to humanity. There are many ways these factors can affect people as well, and that’s through pollution. When daily necessities, such as water, are disrupted with dirt, most people would likely turn to other solutions, such as bottled water. Unfortunately, if there’s a natural disaster, these sources of water can be cut off or limited to the extreme.
Know that many countries have put effort into cutting down pollution and other factors that can disrupt the environment. For example, some countries are giving benefits to those opting for electric cars over petrol ones, and others are rewarding citizens who install solar panels.
The last factor that one cannot control but still has a major impact on health would be the economic disparities. Some countries are so poor that many of its citizens cannot even afford basic healthcare privileges. The only way to reach these people would then be to reduce or remove any hindrances that are blocking healthcare from reaching them, one of the biggest factors being the lack of doctors.
Conclusion
At this point, while the environment that immediately surrounds a person can affect their risk of different health issues, global factors, such as economy and pandemics, can also affect one’s health. While these factors are uncontrollable, this doesn’t mean that it should be ignored. Fortunately, many countries are doing their best to address these global issues, ensuring that the future has brighter solutions, in terms of health, to people that populate this earth.
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