Posts Tagged ‘global financial crisis’

It’s official. The global financial crisis is bad. Bad for home-owners, employers and especially bad for banks. It follows, therefore, that it must be bad for global health too… But just how bad is it? Not bad at all, according to some experts, since the poorest countries have only limited exposure to the financial markets. It is clearly bad for the rich countries who have suffered the greatest losses, fuelling concern that spending on aid and development will need to be curbed.

Bill Gates is worried – earlier this week he urged the rich nations not to cut back on the amount they spend on health aid. Gordon Brown echoed those sentiments yesterday when he pledged to continue to address the world’s health problems, mirroring comments that he expressed earlier at the Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York in September.

The bigger question is whether the financial crisis is bad for those people most vulnerable to health problems and diseases. UNAIDS Director Peter Piot suspects it might be, but is not entirely sure how. Rising food prices and fuel costs will undoubtedly make people more susceptible to infections, but can we really blame the global financial crisis for this? Prices were rising before this latest crisis, and, if anything, have fallen since then.

The worst is probably still to come. For now, let’s hope the global financial crisis is used as an opportunity and not as an excuse. Because, that really would be bad…