Our globalised world extends a bright promise of economic well-being and cultural crossfertilisation. But science journalist Laurie Garrett says it could all be fatally infected by a public health crisis lurking in every corner of the world. The miraculous innovations in western medicine and encouraging advances in some developing countries are proving unexpectedly fragile, who writes, under pressure of war and political corruption, economic downturns, poor government planning, and new epidemics.
Life expectancy in Russia is plummeting; the plague has resurfaced in India; drug-resistant tuberculosis is overwhelming Siberian prisons; HIV is killing off an entire generation of Africans; and even the US public health infrastructure is staggering under the recent rush towards individualised medicine. Laurie Garrett is warning about a global public health collapse this hour on the Connection.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Author of Betrayal of Trust, Laurie Garrett