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Sunday, May 6, 2007
Here's the link to the article:http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=1527
It was not just one step that China decided to make that allowed SARS to be so rampant in China, but in fact, a series of same mistakes which ultimately resulted in the deaths of so many Chinese. The same mistake which is withholding information about their SARS status during the early period that had caused the disease to turn into an epidemic at a much greater pace.
Globalization could have been their friend and might have even been their saviour if that had let international organizations such as the World Health Organization know about their situation earlier. Globalization can work both ways. As SARS was a fairly new mutated virus, if China had released more information about their SARS statistics, then countries all over the world could have used all the information they had to fight the battle against SARS and perhaps find a way to save the SARS infected patients. It is only when countries across the globe do their part by giving out whatever information they have that we can see the true power of globalization to aid us. However, if every country were to do what China had done, then even with the help of globalization, there would be little progress.
In the later part of the SARS outbreak, where many countries were being invaded by the virus, it was also because of globalization that the SARS virus was being able to be contained. Researchers all over the world had begun to study the virus and exchange their findings with one another. Although to this date, no cures have yet to be found for this virus, globalization has allowed us to understand more about SARS in a way faster rate than without it.
When a country like Singapore had safely been able to successfully prevent the virus from spreading to the doctors and nurses working in the frontlines, others in the medical field all over the world followed suit. They followed the way we took preventive measures and sure enough, there were lesser and lesser incidents of the virus infecting the doctors and nurses. Without globalization, would the different countries all over the world have found the way to prevent SARS from spreading to others so quickly?
With increasing globalization, the mobility of people also increases. Many people travel across countries for work making it easier for the SARS virus to reach other countries. This is a global virus and to contain it, it must be contained globally. It is no use if developed countries successfully contain the virus whilst the virus continues to spread rapidly in developing countries. The virus will eventually just reach the developed countries again. So, these developed countries must take it upon themselves to help countries with insufficient medical facilities so that the virus can be contained across the globe. This is the power of globalization.
In the same event, globalization has shown itself to spread the virus more quickly and yet also help in the combat against SARS. If we plan to combat an epidemic such as SARS, then we better make full of what globalization has to offer us- and China should have learnt its lesson by now.
Janice Fan
The Environmentalist/ Health expertLabels: disease, globalisation, health, SARS
Globalised @ 8:00 PM
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