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Globalization Affecting Infectious Disease Patterns

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In what way does globalisation affect infectious disease patterns? Discuss in relation to at least two diseases. Introduction Globalisation is a complex and multifaceted set of processes having diverse and widespread impacts on human societies worldwide. Despite widespread interest in its emergence and impact there is only a limited consensus in the literature on what precisely globalisation actually is (Saker et al. 2004). Reviews of existing literature has identified some of the key defining features of globalisation. Globalisation can be defined as a set of processes that are: “changing the nature of human interaction across a wide range of spheres including the economic, political, social and technological environment. The process of change …show more content…

Tuberculosis (TB) has been associated throughout its history with urban population and migration. Overcrowding, stress of changing social context, poor and unhygienic living conditions all contribute to the spread of the disease and lowering of resistance (DiFerdinando, 1999). Evidence that HIV serves as a driver of TB at the population level has been noted by a number of epidemiological studies (Kwan and Ernst, 2011). Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), the TB causative agent has undergone changes in its relationship with genetic and environmental factors over the past 50 years in urban centres around the world. In the United states, numbers of observed TB cases had been declining from 1980 to 1985 but increased by 20% from 1985 to 1992, with an estimated 51,700 cases of TB attributed to the growing HIV epidemic (Kwan and Ernst, 2011). Due to its steady decline prior to 1985, TB was being deinstitutionalised and individuals were being made responsible for the maintenance of their own treatment and this encouraged drug resistance to develop. In New York, new migrants came predominantly from countries where there was a very high incidence of TB infection. This led to an increase in the population of persons at risk for TB in the lower socioeconomic strata of the New York City (NYC) and New York State (NYS) which were also at risk of being exposed to HIV (DiFerdinando,

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