The latest figures from the World Health Organization (WTO) show that Ebola epidemic has claimed 5,000 lives since March this year. A few days ago, Mali, an inland country in West Africa, became the sixth country that has Ebola patients. Last week, WTO urged the fifteen African countries including Mali to enhance preventative measures within their respective borders, preparing for the lurking Ebola outburst. In fact, Ebola epidemic has spread out of Africa to North America and Europe, and the first death case and locally infected case were reported in America.
Days ago, Japan was also a bit stressed out because of Ebola virus. On October 27th, Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the minister of Health, Labor and Welfare, disclosed that a man over 40 years old had a fever symptom after arriving at Haneda Airport in Tokyo in the afternoon of that day, and felt uncomfortable. The man had been stayed in the Ebola epidemic area of West Africa. He has been sent to the National Center for Global Health and Medicine located in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, and the center is checking whether he has caught the Ebola virus and will release the result in the early morning of August 28th. Yasuhisa Shiozaki said that it is one of the priorities to prevent Japan from being infected by Ebola virus and all possible measures are required to reduce Ebola risks. Among all these, Japan should first prevent the virus from spreading to the domain of Japan, and the country is currently preparing for all the necessary measures in case of an Ebola outburst.
It is rather ironic that the global panic caused by Ebola virus, is actually a "by-product" of globalization process. The world has become smaller quickly because of globalization. With the facilitation of transportation and trading, the exchange of people and goods is very frequent. Even Africa, whose economy is backward, is no longer isolated. According to African Economic Outlook Report, the total amount of foreign investment in African countries in 2013 would reach $203.9 billion, increasing from $186.3 billion in 2012. In 2012, the investment from America, England and France reached $178.2 billion, taking up the largest part of foreign investment in Africa. While the total investment of BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—— reached $67.7 billion, of which $27.7 billion was from China. Natural resources industry is the main target of foreign investment. Besides, service industry and manufacturing industry are attracting more and more foreign direct investment. In 2013, 65% of FDI flowed to countries with rich resources. In 2008, this number was as high as 78%. More and more capital is entering the countries which don't have natural resources. This means other industries in Africa also have opportunity to attract investment and the exploitation of Africa is increasing.
The damaged Amazon rainforest can also be served as an example. Indians who have lived in the Amazon rainforest for centuries have done little harm to the forest. Nowadays, however, this forest is facing a series of accelerated threats which come from ranchers, farmers whose land is barren, gold diggers as well as other mining companies, timber companies, Brazil army, construction of road by government, hydroelectric power project and so on. In 2007, the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) predicated that 60% of Amazon rainforest will have disappeared by 2030. In 2013, Brazilian Environment Minister Isabella Teixeira said that the rate at which Amazon rainforest is being damaged has increased by 30% in the past year.
A lot of excessive exploitation and damage not only hurt natural biological system, but also expose a great amount of sources of infection which were covered by nature. Meanwhile, urbanization and industrialization have brought new kinds of diseases. Similar cases aren’t individual. If things go on like this, it isn’t exaggerating to say that the world will face innumerable avian influenza and Ebola viruses in the future.
It is worth noticing that while virus and diseases are spreading, the world medical and healthcare systems are isolated, conservative and out-of-date. With the wall of intellectual property rights and patent, countries are unwilling to share their medical technology and even regard it as a tool to earn money. It is immoral to neglect global medical assistance because of money. And the out-of-date medical and healthcare system needs to be changed. ANBOUND think tank scholars believe that economic globalization not only brings us international investment and great development of trading, but also exposes us to globalized highly fatal infection. Human beings need corresponding globalized medical and healthcare system and this concerns every one.
Final Analysis Conclusion:
As an independent think tank based on China, ANBOUND research team suggests that the world should share medical technology of infection and improve medical law in the name of morality. To deal with globalized highly fatal infection like Ebola, the world should limit the price of medicine on condition that intellectual property rights are protected, and provide international aid for poor countries. Besides, the world should also establish emergency medical funds to deal with various kinds of highly fatal infection which might show up in the future. This is what we should do when facing globalized issue in a globalization age.
