Friday, March 02, 2012

Blog 7 US Government Urged to Maintain Global Health Spending


Health groups are concerned that potential deep budget cuts in United States federal spending could have direr consequences on global medical progress, especially for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.  The Global Health Technologies Coalition is voicing its concerns about global health spending cuts to members of congress and the Obama administration.  Leadership by the U.S government has played a key role in all of the progress that has been made in fighting diseases, such as AIDS and malaria; and all of the new scientific breakthroughs in public health.  Kaitlin Christianson, the director of The Global Health Technologies Coalition, stated that even in these constrained budgetary times U.S policymakers not lose sight of the commitment and goal of saving lives around the world. Even though some budget cuts are being made in some aspects of global health funding the Obama administration has done a good job of providing financial support to Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, as well as the GAVI Alliance, which is a public/private partnership concentrating on child immunizations.  Many of the advances in global health has coincided with advances in technology.  The Global Health Technologies Coalition is constantly looking for new ways to advance vaccines, diagnostics, new drugs and other biomedical technologies to aid in the fight against global health diseases. 
            With the U.S being a world leader in global health care many other countries look at our actions and follow them.  If the U.S creates deep budget cuts it could lead to other countries pulling out more of their support for global health spending.  The continuation of countries to continue working together to provide healthcare support is essential to combating infectious diseases that know no boundaries among boarders.  Even though the global economic situation is at an all time low the efforts towards providing global health care and finding new efficient ways in how to provide it should not be stopped.  The more vaccines and other medications that can reach the poor the better off the world population will be.  A healthy population is the foundation for a stable society, as well as government, and economy.  With a more stable world population that can produce and consume a more stable economy will occur.  The U.S can tackle the global health issue by providing funds for new diagnostic test, vaccines, treatments, and technologies to provide more efficient and cheaper ways to cure disease.  

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