An Introduction to Global Health Delivery

Book excerpt: "What Mukherjee attempts, and succeeds in doing, is to offer what many students -- undergraduates as well as students of medicine, nursing, and public health -- have long clamored for: a primer not only of recent developments in global health, but also a patient dissection of what has worked less well (and what hasn't worked at all)." --Paul Farmer, from the foreword The field of global health has roots in the AIDS pandemic of the late 20th century, when the installation of health care systems supplanted older, low-cost prevention programs to help stem the spread of HIV in low- and middle-income Africa. Today's global health is rooted the belief that health care is a human right, and that by promoting health we can cultivate equity and social justice in places where such values aren't always found. An Introduction to Global Health Delivery is a short but immersive introduction to global health's origins, actors, interventions, and challenges. Informed by physician Joia Mukherjee's quarter-century of experience fighting disease and poverty in more than a dozen countries, it delivers a clear-eyed overview of the movement underway to reduce global health disparities and establish sustainable access to care, including details of what has worked so far -- and what hasn't. Grounded in the historical and social factors that propagate health disparities and enriched with case studies and exercises that encourage readers to think critically about the subject matter, this text is the essential starting point for readers of any background seeking a practical grounding in global health's promise and progress.