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FRIDAY, April 6 (HealthDay News) -- Globalization may be good for many of the world's economies, but it also poses health challenges to the people who live in those countries.
That's the message of a new report issued by the World Health Organization, released to coincide with World Health Day, which is celebrated every April 7, the anniversary of WHO's founding in 1948.
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"There are a growing number of health problems linked to the increasing number of people and goods crossing the borders every day, because disease crosses the borders in people and goods," said Iain Simpson, a spokesman for WHO, speaking Tuesday from Singapore where he attended a conference in connection with World Health Day.
"Countries need international health security to protect themselves," he added.
An international health security report just released by WHO lists the following priorities for the agency in the coming year:
- the threat posed by emerging infectious diseases, such as influenza and SARS;
- the easier spread of disease around the globe due to the movement of people and tainted goods as part of the global economy;
- the need to better manage international health disasters, such as tsunamis and earthquakes;
- awareness of biological and chemical terror threats;
- the effects of global warming;
- AIDS.
"This is not intended to be a prioritized list but a compilation of issues of equal importance -- issues that are fundamental in international health security," Simpson said.
Simpson said there has been a growing risk of disease spread during the last decade as global trade has mushroomed. Along with greater access to commercial goods has come the potential to transport tainted food products, illegal black market goods, as well as disease carried by people as they travel.
"But the two events that spurred this year's topic are the SARS epidemic in 2003 and the increasing possibility of an international (flu) pandemic," he said.
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