International Health

International health, also called geographic medicine or global health, is a field of health care, usually with a public health emphasis, dealing with health across regional or national boundaries. One subset of international medicine, travel medicine, prepares travelers with immunizations, prophylactic medications, preventive techniques such as bednets and residual pesticides, in-transit care, and post-travel care for exotic illnesses. International health, however, more often refers to health personnel or organizations from one area or nation providing direct health care, or health sector development, in another area or nation. It is this sense of the term that is explained here. More recently, public health experts have become interested in global processes that impact on human health. Globalization and health, for example, illustrates the complex and changing sociological environment within which the determinants of health and disease express themselves.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is the international body primarily responsible for regulating and governing health-related policies and practices across nations. While the WHO uses various policies and treaties to address international health issues, many of their policies have no binding power and thus state compliance is often limited. As a result, a Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) has recently been proposed as a global health treaty that would use stronger domestic accountability mechanisms (including incentives & sanctions) in order to close national and global health inequities. However, some scholars have addressed concerns regarding the FCGH, arguing that it would duplicate other global health governance efforts, lack feasibility, and have limited impact in regulating global health.

Much work in international health is performed by non-governmental organizations, or NGOs. Services provided by international health NGOs include direct health care, community potable water, vitamin supplementation, and mitigation of endemic and epidemic infectious diseases and malnutrition. Examples of NGOs dedicated to international health include:

These organizations often go in harm's way to provide services to people affected by natural disaster or conflict. For example, Médecins Sans Frontières has lost members in the Darfur area, and Care International's Iraq Director, Margaret Hassan (a long-time Iraq resident with dual Iraqi-British citizenship) was brutally murdered on the Internet by Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists for the "crime" of providing services equitably among Iraqis. International Medical Corps was begun in response to the suffering of the Afghan people after the Soviet invasion of 1979, and is adept at providing services in dangerous places (see Attacks on humanitarian workers)

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