Diseases move not only from South to North. Lifestyle diseases (diabetes, overweight and heart diseases) are exported from North to South. At the same time the inequity in access to correct and qualified prevention and treatment of diseases has become an international matter.
There is an increasing recognition that human activities change the world increasingly rapidly, thus introducing new health risks: Ecology, climate, poisonous waste products, antibiotics in agriculture, transport, weakened social structures, increased welfare alongside huge inequity, technology, industry and fast internet growth.
Infectious diseases now spread geographically much faster than earlier. Last year about 2.1 billion people travelled by air. An epidemic or an outbreak, no matter where in the world, is therefore only a few hours from turning into a threat somewhere else in the world. During the past 5 years there have been more than 1100 epidemics. Infections not only spread faster, new infections emerge faster than previously, and since 1970 1-2 new infections have emerged annually, resulting in approximately 40 new infectious diseases that were not known 70 years ago.
Poverty and disease in one country influence the state of health in all countries. Chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, mental diseases, traffic injuries and alcohol and tobacco addiction, previously isolated to the industrialised world, are now global health problems. Some researchers have, by way of epidemiological models, estimated that in 2015 there will be more global deaths caused by tobacco than HIV. The explosive HIV/AIDS epidemics and multiresistant TB in some countries can, together with avian flu in Asia, threaten the state of health in all of Europe. In recent years there have been small outbreaks of malaria in Southern Europe, and this year a small outbreak of Chikungunya fever was seen for the first time in Italy. Just like diseases can cross borders, so can narcotics, unhealthy lifestyle and chemical and biological poisons.
