Preface

The differences between "international health" and "global health" are not well defined; many use the terms interchangeably. Both fields seek to address health issues that cross bor‐ ders and present hazards to diverse populations across the continents and the world. For some public health workers, international health addresses issues for all other countries ex‐ cept the one in which an individual public health worker resides. This definition is not very useful as it depends strictly on an individual's perspective. Some observers have suggested that global health requires a multi-disciplinary perspective to trans-border health issues, in‐ cluding fields such as anthropology, psychology, engineering, law, history, clinical medicine and, of course, public health. This definition seems more useful and is consistent with the current volume entitled *Current Issues in Global Health*. The chapters presented here include examples from the fields of medicine, psychology, military public health and humanitarian relief…even business. What ties them together is a focus on human health and efforts to en‐ sure health through good science and well-designed research. The very nature of the field of global health requires researchers and practitioners from many lands who speak different languages to communicate in a common medium. That communication is often imperfect, but no less important. This book seeks to provide a medium for communication across lan‐ guages and cultures on topics of global health importance.

> **David Claborn, DrPH** CDR USN (ret.) Master of Public Health Program Missouri State University, USA

**Section 1**

**Background and History of the Field**

**Background and History of the Field**

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: What Is Global Health?**

**Introductory Chapter: What Is Global Health?**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.81978

A useful definition of "global health" is an elusive prey, hiding among its congeners of public health, international health, tropical public health, and global health governance. Some use the terms "international" and "global" interchangeably, though others contend that "international" is a more limited term used to describe health issues in the developing world from the perspective of the developed world. In other words, international health is the study of health in countries other than one's own, especially if the other countries are representatives of the developing world. This perspective on international health expanded during the period of European colonialism [1], contributing to the establishment of many leading public health institutions such as the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (founded in 1908) and the Institute of Tropical Medicine-Antwerp (founded in 1906). In the New World, the construction of the Panama Canal prompted the United States to focus on the tropical conditions that nurtured epidemics of yellow fever and malaria amongst the workers on the canal. Several professional organizations were started during this period to address the health risks provided by international trade and travel, including the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (founded in 1903) and the Royal Society for Tropical Medicine and

As Europe and the international community sought to distance themselves from the controversies and outright exploitation of colonialism, public health authorities sought to diminish the perceived paternalism inherent in the accepted definition of international health. Public health events also demonstrated the ability of health issues to transcend borders, presenting threats to rich and poor alike. The Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918 may have killed as much as 5% of the world's population at the time. Although morbidity reports at the time were suppressed due to concerns about divulging troop vulnerabilities in several combatant countries during WWI, the pandemic clarified the need for greater knowledge about transnational disease threats [2]. And, it was obvious that the developed world was not immune

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

David M. ClabornAdditional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81978

David M. Claborn

**1. Introduction**

Hygiene (founded in 1907).

#### **Introductory Chapter: What Is Global Health? Introductory Chapter: What Is Global Health?**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.81978
