Abstract

This article focuses on the access of people in developing countries to medications and medical services that are readily available to inhabitants of industrialized countries. There are, of course, other critical dimensions of public health that require action on a global scale. These include relief for large numbers of people who are starving or living at nearly subsistence levels; provision of a supply of clean, potable water for populations deprived of that essential resource; and the consequences for local agricultural production in countries in which globalization has led to deforestation of vast portions of the land. The focus here on access to health services and needed medications is not intended to minimize the importance of these other areas of global health.