debate global public health

Debate: Global Public Health

The Challenge of Global Health by Laurie Garrett, Foriegn Affairs,

January/February 2007

Thanks to a recent extraordinary rise in public and private giving,

today more money is being directed toward the world's poor and sick

than ever before. But unless these efforts start tackling public

health in general instead of narrow, disease-specific problems -- and

unless the brain drain from the developing world can be stopped --

poor countries could be pushed even further into trouble, in yet

another tale of well-intended foreign meddling gone awry...

Responses:

Nancy Aossey, International Medical Corps

To the Editor:

As head of an organization that has struggled for over two decades

with the challenges Laurie Garrett raises ("The Challenge of Global

Health," January/ February 2007), I know that making a lasting impact

on the health of the world's poor is fraught with difficulties. No

issue is more pressing than the work-force crisis in local health

sectors, because it ultimately erodes the very same local structures

that are essential for sustainable progress....

Joe Amon, HIV/AIDS Program, Human Rights Watch

To the Editor:

Laurie Garrett makes it painfully clear how shortsighted and

dysfunctional our response to the global health crisis has been to

date.

Garrett correctly points out that it will take more than money to make

an impact on global public health, and she correctly states that

unless we start tackling public health in general instead of narrow,

disease-specific problems, we may end up worse off. But while her

diagnosis is on target, her prescription misses the mark, because she

misses the most basic factors underlying not only successful health

infrastructures but also successful prevention programs and a

successful health industry: good governance and a respect for human

rights...

Susan L. Erikson, Global Health Affairs, University of Denver

To the Editor:

I have been following with great interest Foreign Affairs' discussion

about Laurie Garrett's article on global health. But I am struck by

the irony that a distinguished journal of foreign relations has

completely missed such an important point: today's global health

lacuna is political. We simply do not have people who are

knowledgeable and experienced enough in foreign policy engaging in the