Textbook of Global Health / Edition 4

by Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Yogan Pillay, Timothy H. Holtz

Overview

THE CRITICAL WORK IN GLOBAL HEALTH, NOW COMPLETELY REVISED AND IN PAPERBACK

"This book compels us to better understand the contexts in which health problems emerge and the forces that underlie and propel them." -Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu

H1N1. Diabetes. Ebola. Zika. Each of these health problems is rooted in a confluence of social, political, economic, and biomedical factors that together inform our understanding of global health. The imperative for those who study global health is to understand these factors individually and, especially, synergistically.

Fully revised and updated, this fourth edition of Oxford's Textbook of Global Health offers a critical examination of the array of societal factors that shape health within and across countries, including how health inequities create consequences that must be addressed by public health, international aid, and social and economic policymaking.

The text equips students, activists, and health professionals with the building blocks for a contextualized understanding of global health, including essential threads that are combined in no other work:

· historical dynamics of the field
· the political economy of health and development
· analysis of the current global health structure, including its actors, agencies, and activities
· societal determinants of health, from global trade and investment treaties to social policies to living and working conditions
· the role of health data and measuring health inequities
· major causes of global illness and death, including under crises, from a political economy of health vantage point that goes beyond communicable vs. non-communicable diseases to incorporate contexts of social and economic deprivation, work, and globalization
· the role of trade/investment and financial liberalization, precarious work, and environmental degradation and contamination
· principles of health systems and the politics of health financing
· community, national, and transnational social justice approaches to building healthy societies and practicing global health ethically and equitably

Through this approach the Textbook of Global Health encourages the reader — be it student, professional, or advocate — to embrace a wider view of the global health paradigm, one that draws from political economy considerations at community, national, and transnational levels. It is essential and current reading for anyone working in or around global health.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190916527
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/01/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	712
Sales rank:	1,072,163
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Anne-Emanuelle Birn is Professor of Critical Development Studies (UTSC) and Social and Behavioural Health Sciences (Dalla Lana School of Public Health) at the University of Toronto, where she served as Canada Research Chair in International Health from 2003 to 2013. She is widely published in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Africa; her books include: Marriage of Convenience: Rockefeller International Health and Revolutionary Mexico (2006); and Comrades in Health: US Health Internationalists, Abroad and at Home (2013). Professor Birn's honors include Fulbright and Rotary fellowships, election to the Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society, and numerous endowed lectureships across the Americas and Asia. In 2014 she was recognized among the top 100 Women Leaders in Global Health.

Yogan Pillay is Deputy Director General for HIV, Tuberculosis, and Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Programmes in the National Department of Health, South Africa. He has 20 years' experience in the planning and implementation of health system reforms and has published widely on the topics of HIV, tuberculosis, and health systems.

Timothy H. Holtz is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Global Health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. His field experience has focused on infectious disease epidemiology and disease control, and he has worked with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as a consultant to the World Health Organization. From 2002-2010 Dr. Holtz worked in southern Africa, Eastern Europe, and South America on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis control and tuberculosis/HIV program capacity building. He is an internationally recognized expert on the emerging threat of anti-tuberculosis drug resistance and was part of the team of scientists that discovered extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB). He has also directed an HIV prevention clinical trial research program in Thailand, and an HIV and TB technical assistance program in India. He is a founding member of Doctors for Global Health, a health and social justice nongovernmental organization with projects in the U.S., Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Table of Contents

Praise for the Textbook of Global Health

Preface: Why Global Health?

Acknowledgements

About the Authors

1. The Historical Origins of Modern International Health
2. Between International and Global Health: Contextualizing the Present
3. Political Economy of Health and Development
4. Global Health Actors and Activities
5. Data on Health: What Do We Know, What Do We Need to Know, and Why Does it Matter
6. Epidemiologic Profiles of Global Health and Disease
7. Health Equity and the Societal Determinants of Health
8. Health under Crises and the Limits to Humanitarianism
9. Globalization, Trade, Work, and Health
10. Health and the Environment
11. Understanding and Organizing Health Care Systems
12. Health Economics and the Politics of Health Financing
13. Building Healthy Societies: From Ideas to Action
14. Social Justice Approaches to Global Health

Index

Editorial Reviews

"[P]rovides an important focus on the political economy of health and highlights the importance of a social-justice approach, incorporating the social and political economies of LMICs, to building healthy societies." — Lancet Global Health

"A monumental work for health justice. Textbook of Global Health [...] must be made compulsory reading in the training of all public health workers." — Economic & Political Weekly

"Much more than a textbook: an indispensable and exhaustively documented desk reference that belongs in the library of every global health student, researcher, and practitioner." — American Journal of Public Health

"A deep, comprehensive, and eclectic work for students, professionals, and diplomats who want to confront the current dilemmas of global health. It offers readers the pleasure of frequent consultation, as I have done since it fell into my hands a few weeks ago." — Ciência & Saúde Coletiva

"Highly integrated, interdisciplinary, comprehensive, and unique; a serious and essential contribution to teaching and learning global health. It is refreshing and invigorating to see a text engage with the contradictions of its subject with such rigor and honesty." — Lori Hanson, Canadian Medical Education Journal

"Highly recommended. An incredible resource for educators, researchers and practitioners concerned with situating their work in a wider global reality." — South African Medical Journal

"This book provides a forward-looking, highly exhaustive, up-to-date and balanced analysis over the unsolved issues and gaps still impairing equitable access to global health on a world scale." — Daniele Dionisio, PEAH

"This textbook [...] shows we can generate promising change if we work together." — Mary Travis Bassett, Commissioner, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

"Helping to make sense of complexity, this textbook offers sobering and sound political analysis of the global health arena." — Graça Machel, Board Chair, Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, & Child Health: UN Secretary General Sustainable Development Goals Advocate; Founder, Graça Machel Trust

"A densely packed treatise on the history, influences, philosophies, and future of global health. Fills an important gap in the training and experience of most clinicians ... [I]t belongs at every institutional program on global health, whether the focus is clinical, policy, or public health" — Family Medicine

"For the thoughtful undergraduate or graduate student interested in understanding the complex political, social, and environmental drivers of health disparities worldwide, this is for you. In fact, this insightful, well-researched, comprehensive textbook should be required reading for anyone working in global health." — Natasha Hochberg, Clinical Infectious Diseases

"This is a must read for those seeking to understand the structural factors, arrangements and rules generating poor health and inequities at home and across the globe." — Peter Noone, Occupational Medicine

"The book, dedicated to 'all those rocking the boat for health and social justice across the world', dedicates comprehensive sections to describe the origins and history of international and Global Health, and the political, economical, epidemiological and biomedical determinants of health not only for individuals but more importantly in populations. This state-of-the-art book remains an authoritative source for young graduates but will also satisfy advanced scholars and Global Health professionals, and is guaranteed to be best value for money." — Quique Bassat, Chief Editor, Journal of Tropical Paediatrics

"I find it stunning that [the] authors ... have produced a text so dense and comprehensive which is yet so eminently readable. The fruits of their labors, clearly resulting from exhaustive time and effort devoted to research and study, provide clear and convincing expert analysis of how we have arrived at the current state of international public health." — Jules R. Duval, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

"This book does not merely describe international health activities or prescribe technical solutions to particular diseases, but it compels us to better understand the contexts in which health problems emerge and the forces that underlie and propel them. It also discusses the various ways in which governments, organizations, and peoples can work together more effectively to improve health and enable us all to live more fulfilling, productive and, dare I say, happier lives. Herein lies the value of this book. I highly recommend this textbook to students and professionals of international health, as well as to anyone who is interested in the ingredients of human health and well-being in an international context." — From the foreword by Archbishop Emeritus, Desmond Mpilo Tutu

"A deep, comprehensive, and eclectic work for students, professionals, and diplomats who want to confront the current dilemmas of global health. It offers readers the pleasure of frequent consultation, as I have done since it fell into my hands a few weeks ago." — Science and Collective Health, Brazil

"Eminently readable, even captivating, this book presents everything needed to understand international health—-even how to engage in it. Most important, its political-economy perspective is unique and important in the context of the newly-recognized societal influences on health."—Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH, University Distinguished Professor, Johns Hopkins University

"Essential reading for anyone working in international health. Written in a fluid and accessible narrative (free of academic baroqueness), this text should become a point of reference not only for academics but for professionals and non-professionals working in the growing area of international health."—Vincent Navarro, MD, PhD, Professor of Health Policy, Johns Hopkins University; Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Health Services

"The book provides excellent historic insight into international health. Very powerful observations result from the orientation to infrastructure and economics. The content builds upon traditional issues such as environmental to healthcare systems, implementation, and working in international health....The book is an appropriate consideration for an introductory text on international health."—Doody's

"With its all-encompassing view, clear and rich in humanist thinking and social and human commitment, this book is a stimulating contribution to all health and diplomacy professionals engaged in these new and fascinating domains of International Relations that make us more capable of changing the world into a better place to live."—Paulo M. Buss, Center for Global Health, Fiocruz National School of Public Health, Rio de Janeiro, as reviewed in Journal of Public Health Policy

"I found it to be a clear, comprehensive introduction to public health's major concepts... Students praised the text's comprehensive nature: as many noted, it answered most questions they had about specific concepts, and it was extremely useful as a reference. They valued its readability and noted approvingly that it is 'written in a way that doesn't talk down to us.' They also appreciated the key questions and learning points in each chapter, which helped them focus on what was most important within the huge amount of information this book presents." —Medical Anthropology Quarterly

"This is a unique book. There is probably no other written work out there available to students and professionals that focuses on health problems prevalent on a global scale, and discusses available solutions... This book has a wealth of data for decision-making committees." —Biz India

From the Publisher