ABSTRACT
An understanding of trends in global health and the sub-concept of health transition is essential to anticipating possible future health scenarios and planning challenges. These can then be based on knowledge of current patterns and the trends that have influenced them. Clearly, many health transitions are slow and long term but some, such as population ageing, chronic disease emergence and infectious disease resurgence, are having fairly obvious shortterm and near-future effects, as well as long-term effects. Taken together, many trends, such as the movement towards NCDs, have enormous long-term implications and confront those involved in the planning and financing of health at all scales. An understanding of global health and transitions can assist policy-makers and providers through the quagmire of such issues as health services reform, universality of care, prioritization, privatization versus public sector, future costs and the like. Here, we introduce a number of these to highlight existing and forthcoming international changes and challenges.
