Global health is perceived as the health issues that go beyond national borders. Issues that are influenced by circumstances and experiences in other countries, and that are most profitably dealt with through collaboration and solutions on a global level. In a globalised world we can therefore no longer view Danish health conditions in isolation. The borders are permeable, and barriers such as time, ideological differences and geography, having previously separated people and nations, are diminished, leading to increased trade, travel activity and communication.
Concerned with international health issues, 'global health' is a crossing point of different fields such as epidemiology, politics, law, environment, demography and sociology. Global health issues are complex and dependent on, and often influenced by, conditions in other countries apart from the ones that are directly affected. The field encompasses international law, global warming, migration and, in the same category, "globalised health". Chronic conflicts and natural disasters, as well as the explosive increase in travel activity and other cross-border opportunities, and a faster and more direct media presence, have (re-)opened the world's eyes to the unreasonable inequity in the access to a healthy life. It has become clear to decision-makers that in order to eradicate diseases it is necessary to understand and fight them in the context where they emerge, which requires a different and international, global network. Epidemics such as SARS, West Nile fever, Dengue and, most recently, avian flu and multiresistant tuberculosis have shown that diseases do not respect borders and that they can move extremely fast.