Urbanization can affect infectious diseases positively or negatively. Compared to rural areas, health
care, education and social services are in general more accessible in cities, and unemployment tends to
be lower. In the developing world, average urban population health frequently contrasts favourably with
that seen in rural communities; rates of common childhood infections are often considerably lower in
urban compared to rural populations (Sastry, 1997). However, average indicators tend to mask the huge
health inequalities found in urban populations, and rates of infectious and other diseases are higher
among the urban than the rural poor. It is this deprived metropolitan population which is expanding
enormously on account of the massive and unregulated urbanization taking place in many developing
countries.
Rapid and unplanned population growth places huge strains on a city’s infrastructure. Often designed to protect the public health of a small urban elite, this infrastructure is difficult to expand to meet the needs of a much larger population, especially those living in shanty towns and slums at urban periph- eries. In many developing countries, the technical difficulties are compounded by lack of political will (Chaplin, 1999) and available resources. The latter may have been accentuated by structural adjustment programmes, whereby urban workers often lose out more than rural smallholders (Loewenson, 2000).
Overcrowding, poor housing, inadequate sanitation and solid waste removal, and unsafe drinking water are, therefore, common in rapidly urbanizing areas. Estimates suggest that 50% of the world’s urban population lives at the level of “extreme deprivation”, and 70% in some cities (Stephens, 1995). At least one quarter of people living in urban areas in developing countries do not have access to adequate safe water, and 30-50% of solid wastes generated in developing world urban centres are left uncollected (WHO/UNICEF, 2000). Air pollution in Delhi exceeds anything found in the cities of the developed world (World Resources Institute, 1999). Socioeconomic inequalities are rife; in poorer countries, urban health care services are typically grossly over-stretched, and their provision may be distorted to cater for the needs of the rich urban elite. While rural migrants may bring new infectious diseases to the city, they are themselves at higher risk of developing infections to which they have not previously been exposed. And as metropolitan areas mushroom and encroach on new biological environments, they increase the chances of the inhabitants becoming exposed to non-urban infections. Compared to rural societies, urban life is associated with greater mobility, inter-mixing and risk-taking behaviour, all of which increase the potential for transmission of infectious diseases, while urban areas both contribute, and are especially vulnerable, to the effects of global climate change. In summary, residents of urban envi- ronments face multiple threats from new and established diseases, and may themselves be the creators and amplifiers of epidemics that, in time, could affect non-urban populations.
I found this interesting because I didn't even consider that the spread of disease could be considered helpful in the sense that it creates more work for nurses etc. Obviously overall the spread of diseases by Globalisation and Urbanisation is a negative, like the extract explains, with the fact that many in urban areas do not have access to safe water.
Rapid and unplanned population growth places huge strains on a city’s infrastructure. Often designed to protect the public health of a small urban elite, this infrastructure is difficult to expand to meet the needs of a much larger population, especially those living in shanty towns and slums at urban periph- eries. In many developing countries, the technical difficulties are compounded by lack of political will (Chaplin, 1999) and available resources. The latter may have been accentuated by structural adjustment programmes, whereby urban workers often lose out more than rural smallholders (Loewenson, 2000).
Overcrowding, poor housing, inadequate sanitation and solid waste removal, and unsafe drinking water are, therefore, common in rapidly urbanizing areas. Estimates suggest that 50% of the world’s urban population lives at the level of “extreme deprivation”, and 70% in some cities (Stephens, 1995). At least one quarter of people living in urban areas in developing countries do not have access to adequate safe water, and 30-50% of solid wastes generated in developing world urban centres are left uncollected (WHO/UNICEF, 2000). Air pollution in Delhi exceeds anything found in the cities of the developed world (World Resources Institute, 1999). Socioeconomic inequalities are rife; in poorer countries, urban health care services are typically grossly over-stretched, and their provision may be distorted to cater for the needs of the rich urban elite. While rural migrants may bring new infectious diseases to the city, they are themselves at higher risk of developing infections to which they have not previously been exposed. And as metropolitan areas mushroom and encroach on new biological environments, they increase the chances of the inhabitants becoming exposed to non-urban infections. Compared to rural societies, urban life is associated with greater mobility, inter-mixing and risk-taking behaviour, all of which increase the potential for transmission of infectious diseases, while urban areas both contribute, and are especially vulnerable, to the effects of global climate change. In summary, residents of urban envi- ronments face multiple threats from new and established diseases, and may themselves be the creators and amplifiers of epidemics that, in time, could affect non-urban populations.
I found this interesting because I didn't even consider that the spread of disease could be considered helpful in the sense that it creates more work for nurses etc. Obviously overall the spread of diseases by Globalisation and Urbanisation is a negative, like the extract explains, with the fact that many in urban areas do not have access to safe water.
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