Important To Not Create, Perpetuate Misconceptions About Differences Between ‘Global Health’, ‘International Health’

Global Health NOW: False Distinctions Between International Health and Global Health
David Peters, Edgar Berman chair and professor of the department of international health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and director of the Johns Hopkins Alliance for a Healthier World

“Over the past 2 decades, the growth in popularity of the term ‘global health’ has been accompanied by various efforts to distinguish it from ‘international health.’ As a result, many misconceptions about the meaning of both terms have cropped up. In particular, fundamental attributes long espoused in international health, such as a focus on health equity and multi-disciplinary approaches, have been claimed by some to be the new and exclusive purview of global health (see this discussion in The Lancet). Whereas the term global health may signal a change in emphasis toward issues that affect everyone around the world, health programs and initiatives using both terms still address health concerns from local to national, international and global levels. … Ultimately, neither international health nor global health is an entirely accurate term. But it is important not to create or perpetuate false distinctions between the 2 that do not exist…” (11/2).

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