The world is unequal

Health in an unequal world

The Unequal World of Health Data

Health data are a slippery commodity. It is not difficult to reach subjective agreement that such data are unequally distributed around the world, both in terms of quantity and quality. But objective assessments are more difficult, since they need to be based on data—and the data about the data may themselves be problematic or incomplete. Perhaps not surprisingly, therefore, literature is relat...

Globalization and disease: in an unequal world, unequal health!

In this paper, originally presented at an event held by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, the author analyzes the repercussions of globalization on various health aspects: the spread of infectious and parasitic diseases, bioterrorism, and new behavioral patterns in health, among others. He goes on to examine the positive and negative effects of international agreemen...

A fatter, healthier but more unequal world

Lancet readers know that the world's population is getting heavier, but the detail in the latest overview of global trends in mean body-mass index (BMI) and the proportion of individuals classifi ed as overweight and obese remains striking. 1 In their pooled analysis of 1698 population-based studies, with more than 19 million participants representing most countries, the NCD Risk Factor Collabo...

Harveian Oration Health in an unequal world

William Harvey and the Harveian Trust William Harvey was born in Folkestone on April 1, 1578. He was educated at the King’s School, Canterbury, Gonville, and Caius College, Cambridge, and the University of Padua, graduating as doctor of arts and medicine in 1602. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1607 and was appointed to the Lumleian lectureship in 1615. In the cycles of...