On TB and Building a Safer Global Neighborhood
jhoffner — January 31, 2012 – 12:37 pm
By Jessica Hoffner, ACTION intern
My dad has always taught me, “Charity starts at home.” And during the State of the Union address, President Obama stressed nation building at home over nation building abroad. The president made it very clear that nation building overseas is no longer a U.S. priority. So if my own father and the President of the United States think a strong home matters most, how did I end up working in global health advocacy? After all, I don’t live in Africa so why should I care about what happens there? And if I didn’t care, then why should the U.S.?
And then it hit me.
If you live in a beautiful home but your neighbors are living in thatched-roof shacks, a realtor will have a bit of trouble selling your house. Why? Because a good home in a bad neighborhood isn’t worth much more than the houses next to it.
I think I understand what my father and Obama are saying, and yes, it’s important to have a nice, strong home. But we must not forget that our home resides in a neighborhood.
So why care about global health? Well, the United States is part of a global neighborhood. We’re only as strong as our neighbors - we’re all interconnected.
Take, for example, TB (a contagious lung disease that spreads through the air). What would you do if your neighbors had TB and it was spreading like wildfire in their cramped quarters? Would you help your neighbors? What if your nice home couldn’t protect you against this disease? What would that mean for your neighborhood? The bottom line - if one person in your neighborhood suffers, the rest suffer.
Disease doesn’t know the difference between your house and your neighbors. And it doesn’t know the difference between the U.S. and Zambia. People travel across borders - so does disease. In order to address global health issues such as TB, you can’t focus on only one country. TB is curable - we just need new tools for detection, better drug regimens and better integration of TB-HIV services.
My colleagues at ACTION don’t like to use fear as a motivator for getting people to care about TB or any of the global health issues we work on. TB is scary; it’s a silent killer that we have created ourselves with our inattention—with a lack of political will and resources to take on tuberculosis. But here’s what’s worse - those who are infected are your neighbors. They may not live down the street - instead across the ocean- but they are your neighbors nonetheless.
So yes - a strong nation is good. And yes - charity starts at home. But a strong nation needs strong neighbors. So if you don’t consider this your moral obligation or neighborly duty, then consider this a way to increase the value of your home.
