Sickness and Wealth: The Corporate Assault on Global Health

Front Cover
Meredith P. Fort, Mary Anne Mercer, Oscar Gish
South End Press, 2004 - Business & Economics - 237 pages

In this powerful and accessible collection of new essays, international scholars and activists examine how official and corporate actors of globalization-including multinationals, the IMF and World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and "first world" governments-have enacted policies that limit medical access and promote disease and death for many in the poor world. The contributors to Sickness and Wealth provide a history of health and "development" strategies; reveal the grim health consequences of these policies throughout the world; and highlight the work of activists and organizations currently working for improved global health.

Edited by affiliates of Health Alliance International, which is based at the University of Washington in Seattle, Sickness and Wealth features lucid explanations on this pressing topic, as well as instructive graphics and strong photography.

Sickness and Wealth provides a history and context for health and development strategies; shows how profit-driven "development" policies are being exported to countries throughout the world; and reveals the actual health consequences of profit-driven policies, and highlights the work of several social movements currently confronting globalization and working toward improved health.

Authors include Vandana Shiva, revealing the effects of industrial agriculture on poor people's health; Patrick Bond, exposing the political roots of South Africa's cholera epidemic; Evelyne Hong, exploring the role of international agencies and corporations in health care; Seiji Yamada, documenting how militarism and war produce disease; and several writers describing how the struggle for people's health is, itself, becoming globalized.

Contributors include: Stephen Bezruchka, Joseph Brenner, Patrick Bond, Alejandro Ceron, Abhijit Das, Paul Davis, Meredith Fort, Oscar Gish, Steve Gloyd, Tim Holtz, Evelyne Hong, Celia Iriart, Patrick Kachur, Mary Anne Mercer, Emerson Merhy, Ellen Shaffer, Vandana Shiva, Juan Carlos Verdugo, Howard Waitzkin, Seiji Yamada.

From inside the book

Contents

BRIEF HISTORY OF HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES
9
THE LETHAL DIVIDE HOW ECONOMIC INEQUALITY AFFECTS HEALTH
11
THE LEGACY OF COLONIAL MEDICINE
19
THE PRIMARY HEALTH CARE MOVEMENT MEETS THE FREE MARKET
27
SAPPING THE POOR THE IMPACT OF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMS
43
EXPANSION OF THE NEOLIBERAL MODEL
55
THE FAILURES OF NEOLIBERALISM HEALTH SECTOR REFORM IN GUATEMALA
57
HMOS ABROAD MANAGED CARE IN LATIN AMERICA
69
THE REGLOBALIZATION OF MALARIA
131
THE BATTLE AGAINST GLOBAL AIDS
145
MOBILIZING FOR HEALTH
159
THE STRUGGLE FOR PEOPLES HEALTH
161
SHALL WE LEAVE IT TO THE EXPERTS?
167
Terms and Organizations
173
Resource Guide
177
Contributors
193

TRADE AND HEALTH CARE CORPORATIZING VITAL HUMAN SERVICES
79
MILITARISM AND THE SOCIAL PRODUCTION OF DISEASE
95
HOW ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION POLICIES
105
STOLEN HARVEST THE HIJACKING OF THE GLOBAL FOOD SUPPLY
107
THE POLITICAL ROOTS OF SOUTH AFRICAS CHOLERA EPIDEMIC
119
Endnotes
199
Index
223
About South End Press
Copyright

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About the author (2004)

Meredith Fort is an affiliate of Health Alliance International, a non-profit organization associated with the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine. Mary Anne Mercer is an affiliate of Health Alliance International, a non-profit organization associated with the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine. Oscar Gish is an affiliate of Health Alliance International, a non-profit organization associated with the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine.