GERMS, GENES AND HISTORY

Question 1

WHAT IS A ‘HEALTH ENVIRONMENT’? MACROSCOPIC (EXTERNAL) ELEMENTS?

Answer 1

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT (E.G. CLIMATE, GEOGRAPHY, FLORA AND FAUNA, HYDROLOGY, MINERAL AND SOIL RESOURCES)]…)

BUILT ENVIRONMENT (E.G. HOUSING, TRANSPORT NETWORKS, SNITARY NETWORKS, ENERGY NETWORKS, SURVEILLANCE STRUCTURES..)

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT (E.G. LEGAL AND POLITICAL STRUCTURES, POPULATION DENSITY AND DIVERSITY, ACCESS TO WORK AND WELFARE, ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES, SAFETY FROM VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT, LEVELS OF EQUALITY…)

CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT (E.G. PRESENCE/ABSENCE OF PSYCHOSOCIAL STRESSORS, PREVAILING CULTURES OF HEALTH AND HEALTHCARE, DIETARY, ACTIVITY, CLOTHING PRACTICES….)

Question 2

HOW MIGRATION SHAPES HEALTH ENVIRONMENTS?

Answer 2

• WHEN PEOPLE MIGRATE, THEY DON’T JUST MOVE THEIR BODIES, BUT ALSO THEIR FOOD, CULTURE, POLICY
• IMPACT OF HUMAN MOVEMENTS AN CULTURAL EXCHANGES GO BEYOND INFECTIOUS DISEASE, AND INCLUDE: FOOD ENVIRONMENTS, CHRONIC ILLNES, BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH CLIMATES AND AREAS OF ACTIVITY, PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF GENETIC CONDITIONS…

Question 3

THE FOREIGNESS OF GERMS?

Answer 3

NO MATTER WHAT THE GERM IS, NO MATTER WHAT THE HEALTH CONCERN COMES FROM, IT IS ASSUMED TO BE FOREIGN UNTIL SOMEONE PROVES IT OTHERWISE (The Persistent Association of Immigrants and Disease)
- E.G. TUBERCULOSIS AS AN ‘EXTERNAL EVIL’ IMPORTD BY IMMIGRANTS

Question 4

EXAMPLES OF GLOBAL HUMAN MOVEMENS AND INTERACTION BETWEEN HEALTH ENVIRONMENTS?

Answer 4

1) WORLD WARS (e.g. WAR ON TERROR, The Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), popularly known as the war on terror, is the term that refers to an ongoing international military campaign launched by the United States government following the September 11 attacks. The targets of the campaign are primarily Islamist groups located throughout the world, DISPLACED MORE THAN 37 MILLION PEOPLE SO FAR)
2) EXPLORATION (E.G. THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE’ The Columbian Exchange refers to the exchange of diseases, ideas, food. crops, and populations between the New World and the Old World following the voyage to the Americas by Christo Columbus in 1492. —> (PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT EXAMPLES, SMALLPOX WERE IMPORTED TO OTHER CONTINENTS FROM EUROPE, THE DISEASE SOMETIMES PUPOSEFULLY SPREAD AS A WAR WEAPON, E.G. WRAP DISEASED INDIIDUALS INTO BLANKETS AND THEN DISTRIBUTE THE BLANKETS TO LOCAL POPULATIONS)
3) ENSLAVEMENT (E.G. ‘TRIANGLE TRADE’: In a system known as the triangular trade, Europeans traded manufactured goods for captured Africans, who were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to become slaves in the Americas. The Europeans, in turn, were supplied with raw materials.)
4) IMPERIALISM AND COLONIALISM (TRADING COLONIES, SETTLER COLONIES, EXTRACTION COLONIES)
5) POSTCOLONIAL MASS MIGRATION (‘WE ARE HERE BCAUSE YOU WERE THERE’) (COMMONWEALTH MIGRANTS FROM THE ‘OPEN DOOR’ TO THE ‘HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT’)

Question 5

EXAMPLES OF HOW MIGRATION AFFECTED HEALTH ENVIRONMENT - THE IRISH POTATO FAMINE

Answer 5

The movements:

• Potato to Europe via Spanish empire
• Potato introduced to Ireland to feed the poor, freeing up land for lucrative grain cropping and exports
• Potato blight (plant disease) comes to Ireland from USA via Belgium
• Failure of potato crop in 1847-52 prompts starvation and mass emigration esp. to Britain, Canada and USA (not to mention the 1848 social revolutions across Europe)
• Irish people move to the UK bringing their culture, food, policy etc…

“Black ‘47” refers to the year 1847, when death and emigration resulting from starvation, plague and disease lead to the most dramatic population decrease in the entire period of the Great Hunger in Ireland.’

Question 6

EXAMPLES OF HOW MIGRATION AFFECTED HEALTH ENVIRONMENT - ‘GLOBALIZING’ TUBERCULOSIS

Answer 6

The movements
TB, endemic in urban Europe, travels along the pathways of empire.
TB introduced to rural and First Nation communities as a ‘disease of civilisation’. (deemed as unavoidable and necessary by the invading groups)
TB prevalence is amplified by conditions of imperial labour, urbanization, and social disruption.
Better living conditions, public health surveillance, and later antibiotics (nearly) eradicate TB in western Europe. Colonies do not share these benefits equally.
Inadequate TB treatment in Global South enables rise of MDR-TB; migration, business travel and tourism return it to Europe. (but seen in Europe as having originated elsewhere, ‘foreignness of germs’)

Question 7

WHTA MIGHT CHANGE PATTERNS OF HUMAN MOVEMENTS, AND SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECT HEALTH ENVIRONMENTS IN THE FUTURE?

Answer 7

• NEO-GLOBALISTION OF COMMODITIES AND LABOUR
• TOURISM
• BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE (It is an effort to develop an expanded, interdependent market for China, grow China’s economic and political power, and create the right conditions for China to build a high technology economy)
• ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES
• WATER WARS (Water conflict is a term describing a conflict between countries, states, or groups over the rights to access water resources. The United Nations recognizes that water disputes result from opposing interests of water users, public or private)
• INTENSIFICATION OF ANIMAL/HUMAN INTERACTIONS AS ECOSYSTEMS ARE DISRUPTED BY DEVELOPMENT

Question 8

UNIFACTORIAL MIGRATION?

Answer 8

DOESN’T EXIST, MIGRANTS DON’T JUST BRINGTHEMSELVES AND THEIR E.G. GERMS, THEY BRING FOOD, CULTURE ETC