Content area
Full Text
Health security must be addressed with great urgency, and health-system strengthening is one of the surest routes to health security. We are not secure when the difference in life expectancy between the poorest and the richest countries exceeds 40 years, or when annual governmental expenditure on health ranges from US$20 per person to well over $6000.1 We are not secure when more than 40% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is living on less than a dollar a day.2
Medicine has never before possessed such sophisticated treatments and procedures for curing disease and prolonging life. Yet, each year, nearly 10 million young children and pregnant women have their lives cut short, largely by preventable causes.3,4
Economic development will not automatically protect people who are poor or guarantee universal access to health care. Health systems will not automatically gravitate toward greater fairness and efficiency. Inter national trade and economic agreements will not automatically consider effects on health. Deliberate policy decisions are needed in all these areas.
Poor households spend up to 80% of disposable income on food.5 The first things that drop out of the diet when prices increase are usually healthy foods, and the health consequences are well documented.6 When a commodity so fundamental to life as food is priced beyond the reach of poor people, we know that something in our world has gone terribly wrong.
All the experts tell us that developing countries will be the first and hardest hit by climate change.7,8 They also tell us that countries with robust and equitable health systems will be best able to cope with the shocks of climate change and a drastic increase in extreme weather events.8 Protection from the social factors that place poor and deprived populations at...