Globalization refers to the increasing global connectivity, integration and interdependence in the economics, social, technological, cultural, political and ecological spheres, as quoted from Wikipedia. Hence, globalization can also be defined as the internationalization and standardization of everything related to different countries, which result in the world becoming more like a country as time changes.

However, there is always be pros and cons towards different issues, and this applies on globalization too. In terms of health, globalization has both helped to spread some of the deadliest infectious diseases known to humans, yet also reshaped the social geography within which humanity strives to create health or prevent disease, from Wikipedia. Some of the most common international diseases are: plague, measles, small pox, malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, and the transmission of these diseases has increased as time pass, as the speed of modern transportation systems increases, which means that infections can potentially move around the world at a faster speed.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a common and deadly contagious disease caused by mycobacterium. TB most commonly affects the lungs (as pulmonary TB), but can also affect the central nervous system, the lymphatic system, the circulatory system and genitourinary system, bones, joints and even the skin. Like the common cold, it spreads through air, and only people who are sick with TB in their lungs are infectious. When infectious people cough, sneeze, talk or spit, they propel TB germs, known as bacilli, into the air. A person needs only to inhale a small number of these to be infected.

TB is a disease of poverty; affecting mostly young adults in their most productive years; the vast majority of TB deaths are in the developing world, with more than half of all deaths occurring in Asia. It has been one of history’s greatest killers and is also known to be among the world’s biggest health threats. In 2005, 8.8 million people contracted and 1.6 million died due to TB, as according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Currently, Two billion people, one-third of the world’s population, are infected with the TB bacteria, and TB is also a leading cause of the death in HIV patients (200,000 people with HIV die from TB every year, mostly in Africa), as stated in the article, Super-deadly TB, by The Straits Times, Science, Saturday, March 31 2007.

It was also mentioned in the website of WHO, that each person with active TB disease will infect an average of 10 to 15 people each year if they are left untreated. Consequently, the number of new cases arising each year is still increasing globally and in the WHO regions of Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and South-East Asia. Hence, it was predicted that someone in the world is newly infected with TB bacilli every second.

However, just as I have mentioned beforehand, globalization has its pros and cons. Despite increasing the rate of which diseases have been spread due to the increase in global connectivity, globalization has also helped to prevent diseases and created health in the world population. Many different organizations in the world such as WHO, United States’ National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD) in Singapore have been working on different resolution to combat TB before it is too late.

Drugs and strategies have been invented, planned and then spread to the whole world to encounter the increasing trend of TB. Currently, the TB’s annual incidence rates are now stable or falling in all six WHO regions and have peaked globally, although the total number of cases is still rising in certain regions such as the African, Eastern Mediterranean and South East-Asian regions. It was stated in the Straits Times article that new TB cases have dropped from 97 to 83 in every 100,000 people from 2000 to 2005 in Russia. This is also a fall in TB rates in Singapore, from 300 to 54.9 to 34.8 in every 100,000 people from 1960s to 1997 to 2006.

It is certainly a good thing that globalization has allowed illnesses and diseases to be maintained or decreased. However, globalization could also be blamed for the existence of the illnesses and diseases. In my opinion, globalization has its own advantages and disadvantages to the world. It allows conveniences in mankind through transportation and communication yet it makes the world become a smaller place where everything is similar and standardized. It helps to bring both health and diseases to the world population, and allows advancement and industrialization, yet destroys our Mother Nature. Nothing is perfect, and this implies on human beings too. Everything has its own flaws, such as the unavoidable mistakes that we make in our life. Hence, I feel that it is important for us to accept the paradox of globalization.