Abstract
Global health, as a field of study, research, and practice, has grown in prominence over the past two decades. This chapter sets out what “global health” is and outlines key principles and core concepts of relevance for the field. It goes on to take a historical look at the origins of global health in the fields of public health, international health, and tropical medicine, providing a brief overview of important milestones in the development of the field. The chapter ends by turning to the present day, discussing main global health challenges the world faces today and what changes in the field of global health could be leveraged to better address these. Finally, the chapter explains why global health has transformative potential and puts forward suggestions as to how this can be harnessed for the world to become a healthier and more peaceful place as set out in the sustainable development goals.
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Hanefeld, J., Fischer, HT. (2021). Global Health: Definition, Principles, and Drivers. In: Haring, R., Kickbusch, I., Ganten, D., Moeti, M. (eds) Handbook of Global Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05325-3_1-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05325-3_1-1
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