That got us to talking about exotic diseases that are going global, such as West Nile virus, which hit New York last summer. Borne by mosquitoes and already found in birds as far south as Virginia, it could hit humans in the mid-Atlantic region next summer. All it takes is one infected person spreading germs through the ventilation system on an airplane.
Affluent nations can no longer afford to look at public health as just a national issue.
And we are finally learning that lesson. Americans are focused on the importance of international public health as never before. According to a poll last year by the Global Health Council, the world's largest alliance dedicated to international public health, more than 80 percent of Americans felt that infectious diseases in other countries posed a serious threat to the health of people here. The council's most recent poll, released last week, found that 30 percent of Americans are more concerned about the threat of infectious diseases from other countries this year than they were last year. The key issues in global health are not the horrific diseases that make headlines, such as outbreaks of the Ebola virus.