“Today, diseases as common as the cold and as rare as Ebola are circling the globe with
near telephonic speed, making long-distance connections and intercontinental infections
almost as if by satellite. You needn’t even bother to reach out and touch someone. If you
live, if you’re homoeothermic biomass, you will be reached and touched” (Angier, 2001).
Introduction:
In his TED talk, Goldin (2009) mentions that globalisation has caused the world to become
more complex and functionally integrated. This means that local events may have global
consequences. Globalisation, the increase of “flows and influences of capital and goods,
information and ideas, and people and forces, as well as environmentally and biologically
relevant substances” across multi-continental distances, has facilitated the spread of
emerging infectious diseases around the world (Keohane & Nye, 2000). Using the Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003 as a case study, this essay seeks to
discuss that contemporary globalisation has resulted in greater human mobility which
contributes to the spread of the virus to 37 countries within weeks. This essay will also
evaluate the measures taken to tackle this global health threat.
Human mobility:
Armelagos and Harper (2010) assert that we are witnessing a re-emergence of infectious
diseases due to anthropogenic factors. As a result of globalisation and technological
advances, more people are becoming mobile with the ability to travel more frequently as
well as visit areas that used to be remote and inaccessible (Wilson, 2007). According to the
World Tourism Organization (2014), more than a billion tourists travelled outside their
countries in 2013. This is notwithstanding the undocumented travellers, internal migrants
