ABSTRACT
The emergence of new human infections and the globalization of commerce are not threats; they are realities that will mold the way the people of the world live their lives and conduct business in the decades to come. The question is whether we will successfully tackle the challenge of this potent mix or suffer the misery of ever more virulent pandemics. The inexorable increase in the human population, recently projected to reach nine billion by the year 2050, will continue to contribute to “planetary overload,” to quote epidemiologist Anthony J. McMichael (McMichael 1993). The underpinnings necessary for safe human habitation – clean water and sanitation – have never been universally available. The access to the global food supply and the adequacy of that supply has likewise never been assured in modern history. A central question raised by the emergence of new human infections in a “transnationalized” world is whether global safety and the security of populations are increasingly at risk. Does the globalization of commerce and travel fundamentally amplify risk of infection when that globalization is overlaid on an inadequate sanitary infrastructure?
