Since technology developed, people have become to travel to other countries easily, and numerous products have been exchanged across oceans and borders. Globalization facilitates the expansion of the international market and the increase in the movement of people. However, on the other hand, globalization also increases opportunities for the spread of the global diseases and accelerates the speed of the spread. The fact negatively impacts on public health worldwide.
Here is an example how fast disease spread around the world today. SARS, the severe acute respiratory syndrome, is an infections disease caused by the SARS coronavirus. More than 8000 cases were reported between November 2002 and July 2003, and of which 774 died (WHO, 2003). The
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The increase in international food trade raises questions about safety standards for food production. One of the representative food-borne illnesses is “Mad caw disease”, found in England in 1984. The outbreak of mad cow disease led to more than 37000 cases around the world. The threat of the mad caw disease is that the virus can influence humans. In addition, it’s difficult to diagnose the symptom as mad caw disease, and the cause of the disease hasn’t been explored yet. The incident made each country aware of the imperfection of its food inspection system. Also, many countries recognized the risk of cheap foreign production and reconsidered trade agreements. The restriction of trade can be effective to reduce the risk of those diseases. The biggest problem for food trade between countries is that each country has a different standard for food inspection. Thus, the difference of the understanding among countries increases the spread of food-borne illnesses. To reduce the incidence of these diseases, each country should raise its standard of food inspection. Moreover, the international organizations for world trade, such as WTO, also should raise the world standard and nations’