What Is Global Health?

Teaching Resources—Global Health: Introduction (including lesson plan with slides)

Over the last century, great progress has been made in the field of global health. The world is, on balance, much healthier. Global life expectancy is rising and infectious disease rates are declining.

However, as the world becomes healthier, new challenges are coming up. The gains made in global health are not evenly distributed around the world, and in many places, people are still dying of preventable illnesses. As the world becomes more interconnected, infectious diseases can spread faster from one country to another. And as life expectancy has increased, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)—such as cancer, diabetes, and dementia—have become the leading cause of death and disability globally.

In addition to the challenges of emerging disease trends, the lack of international funding and cooperation to treat and prevent diseases persists. Despite a crowded field of UN agencies, international organizations, governmental donors, and private donors, most funding comes from two major sources. The U.S. government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supply the majority of global public and private funding, respectively—meaning that the future of global health advancements depends on those two donors and their interests.

In this module, we will 

• learn about the progress the world has made in global health, as well as new and enduring challenges; 
• understand Mexico’s policy approach to diabetes, a noncommunicable disease that is a rising concern;
• analyze the effects of NCDs on different groups of people, and learn how to measure them; 
• examine the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and learn how a marginalized crisis became an international priority;
• explore the four types of health-care systems around the world and the goal of universal health coverage; and 
• understand the unequal impacts of COVID-19 in the United States.