Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us are no strangers to the importance of health in our communities. From our health systems and workers to communal health and personal hygiene, we have begun to understand how the health of each individual is linked with the health of the local and international community. While we have been focused on the current pandemic given how drastically it has transformed our lives, there are still many invisible problems that need to be brought into focus.
At present, the current pandemic has resulted in about 5 million deaths out of 273 million cases in the past three years. However, you may be surprised that other diseases such as malaria are more common – albeit less deadly. Malaria has had about at 1.59 miliion deaths out of 696 million cases in the past three years, and alongside malaria, many other noncommunicable diseases and communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer cause millions of deaths annually globally.
Moving away from statistics, you may ask how this concerns you. Isn’t this an issue that concerns governments and figures of authority instead?
What most of us may not see is that health is an interlinked issue. Our individual health is deeply related to our daily habits, the health of our community and environment, and to various industries.
For instance, the number of cases and deaths of malaria have increased globally due to disruptions in the provision of healthcare during the pandemic. Closer to home, Singaporeans have also faced a spike in high blood pressure and diabetes prevalence rates over the past two years, alongside decreased physical activity which may be due to default work-from-home statuses. In such examples, it establishes a distinct link between our daily habits, community health, and government legislation.
You may now be thinking to yourself: it is pretty obvious that community health and governmental legislations affect our lifestyles, but is this really our problem? And how do other things like the environment affect us at all?
When we think of health, it is not often that the climate comes to mind. However, the environment affects our physical and mental health and continues to threaten health all around the world – which ultimately includes us as well.
Living in Our Concrete Jungle
Brought into the spotlight by Richard Louv, the Nature-deficit Disorder describes several consequences that have occurred as communities spend less time in nature. Namely, shorter attention spans, increased rates of both physical and emotional illnesses, diminished senses and many other consequences.
Whilst the Nature-deficit disorder is not classified as a medical diagnosis, it describes a cultural transition in society. In the current digital age, the rise of technology and focus on urbanization has resulted in significantly less focus on tradition, outdoor lifestyles, nature, and human contact.
With our increasingly sedentary lifestyles in Singapore, the path has been paved for mental illnesses and non-communicable diseases such as depression and obesity to plague our community.
The Start of the Unpredictable
Globally, rapid changes in the atmosphere have caused drastic changes in the climate which have increased the frequency of natural disasters. This increased occurrence leads to damages in infrastructure across all industries, and negatively impacts our health systems and supply chains.
As reported by the United Nations, extreme weather events have caused disasters that have resulted in financial losses of $3.64 trillion from 1970 to 2019. With large setbacks to a country’s economic development, access to food and water supplies are threatened – alongside access to other necccessities such as healthcare. This leaves communities vulnerable to weakened immunities due to food or water insecurity and contamination, crippling their ability to recover from diseases.
This also threatens Singapore as we are heavily reliant on imports for our food and water sources. In Singapore, 90% of our food is imported and about half of our water is imported. As food and water supplies fluctuate globally, this will lead to increased costs which can threaten our society as easy and reliable access to these commodities may then be limited to households that are able to afford it. Following this, increased proportions of our society will then be threatened by food and water insecurity that can also threaten our communal health.
The Interconnected World
From our experience of COVID-19, it is not hard to imagine why the health of other countries and our communities is interlinked with our personal health. When climate-related disasters affect other countries, related imports and exports may get affected and in turn negatively impact the livelihoods and food or water security of our countries. Furthermore, the failure of healthcare systems in other countries could lead to the rise of other infectious diseases that can be spread to other countries, such as in the case of COVID-19.
As such, the key to improving health and wellbeing globally will need to include tackling of various areas of society such as infrastructure, the environment and individual habits. As individuals, we can advocate for stronger environmental policies and protections and social equity that can help to improve communal and global health. After all, if the environment and international communities were to prosper, our health would also significantly benefit from it.
Cover Photo taken by Marcelo Leal.