Degradation in the culture of capitalism

There are segments that experience poverty, cramped living conditions, and inadequate health care. These are the locations that diseases can take hold and spread out of control. These areas usually have little if any government services and public policy are to sacrifice health care for the sake of economic growth (Robbins 2004 Ch. 8). In addition, the population does not have appropriate access to vaccinations. The most poverty-stricken areas are also likely to suffer from environmental pollution. This serves to introduce additional illnesses into the population as well as weaken the immune response.
Capitalism has also created an environment where transportation is commonplace. The disease can easily be transported on the products or the carriers that permeate the marketplace. Merchants, seeking to maximize profits, will overlook social concerns when importing or exporting a product. The social cost of producing or importing a product is passed onto the general public in capitalism. Poverty-stricken neighborhoods around the world become infected and impoverished people feel the brunt of the spread of disease and environmentally induced illness.
What can be done to reduce or prevent the rising incidence of infection
The globalization of capitalism has contributed to the spread of infectious diseases in a number of significant ways. Still, we treat infectious diseases in isolated systems. According to Morse (2005), ” We have no unified system for global surveillance, let alone one for response”. To help combat these problems and control the spread of disease there needs to be an international effort towards monitoring, recognizing, vaccinating, and controlling their spread.
An international effort needs to be devoted to recognizing new infectious diseases when they first appear. Often this is in isolated and poorer nations that do not have a sophisticated health care system in place. Drugs need to be developed to treat resistant strains and made available around the globe. It would be in the global interest to view disease anywhere in the world as a local public health issue.
There also needs to be a policy of vaccinations. People should not be denied medical care based on their income. The policy that currently leaves millions of poor people susceptible to a new virus or resistant strain needs to be altered to accommodate the entire public. This would also dictate that people are afforded an adequate level of care when symptoms first present themselves. By encouraging people to seek medical treatment, officials could more adequately isolate and control the spread of the disease. These endeavors would not only serve as a practical mechanism for monitoring and controlling public health, but they would also alter our attitude in regard to the threat of an infectious disease that exists anywhere in the world.