With the ever-expanding globalization and sophisticated transportation networks, the world has become a tighter global village. Human mobility has increased by more than a thousand fold since the 19th century, and the number of people traveling across the world is increasing 10% annually. In addition, economic globalization has helped to increase shipping traffic by more than 27% in the past two decades.
In response, international health agencies have taken steps to implement evidence-based health policies to prevent epidemic outbreaks that may result from increased international travel. Continental populations are no longer isolated, and therefore diseases that were once confined to their continent of origin can spread quickly across the world. That is, air and water transport systems have reduced such confinement.
For example, the SARS outbreak from a single infected physician from Guangdong spreading to 16 hotel guests in Hong Kong, who in turn spread the disease to other countries such as Vietnam, Canada, and Singapore, led to the spread of the disease to 26 countries, 5 continents, and 8,000 people. This case clearly shows the power of globalization. Another case is the Ebola virus outbreak. The outbreak started from Western Africa, where the disease was rampant at the time. A traveler passing through the affected area got the disease and brought it to the US, making it a pandemic.
These cases show that it is impossible to control travel of people and thus that the spread of diseases from a remote location to major cities must be controlled for. Therefore, agencies such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should coordinate technical assistance to limit the spread of diseases at the earliest known outbreak.
S.T. Park