Blue Marble Health

Dr. Hotez is a world-class, innovative, and truly original thinker. In this book, he pushes the world and its decision-makers to address neglected tropical diseases in a comprehensive and meaningful fashion, wherever they occur. -- Arthur L. Reingold, MD, University of California Berkeley School of Public Health Blue Marble Health brings a refreshing perspective to the concept of Global Health with its blurry north-south divide. It is a comprehensive work that sheds light in to a well of health problems grounded in a bitter reality of inequity, infectious diseases and NCDs. Hotez highlights the need for shared solutions to tackle some of the World's greatest public health problems. -- Roberto Tapia-Conyer, Carlos Slim Foundation Blue Marble Health is a resounding, relentless call for action-a plea to set aside excuses and rally behind a commitment to improve the lives of billions. Dr. Hotez meticulously details neglected diseases, imploring us to tackle the socioeconomic drivers of their profound impact on our most vulnerable populations. -- Mathuram Santosham, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

Clear, compassionate, and timely, Blue Marble Health is a must-read for leaders in global health, tropical medicine, and international development, along with anyone committed to helping the millions of people who are caught in the desperate cycle of poverty and disease.In 2011, Dr. Peter J. Hotez relocated to Houston to launch Baylor's National School of Tropical Medicine. He was shocked to discover that a number of neglected diseases often associated with developing countries were widespread in impoverished Texas communities. Despite the United States' economic prowess and first-world status, an estimated 12 million Americans living at the poverty level currently suffer from at least one neglected tropical disease, or NTD. Hotez concluded that the world's neglected diseases-which include tuberculosis, hookworm infection, lymphatic filariasis, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis-are born first and foremost of extreme poverty. In this book, Hotez describes a new global paradigm known as "blue marble health," through which he asserts that poor people living in wealthy countries account for most of the world's poverty-related illness. He explores the current state of neglected diseases in such disparate countries as Mexico, South Korea, Argentina, Australia, the United States, Japan, and Nigeria. By crafting public policy and relying on global partnerships to control or eliminate some of the world's worst poverty-related illnesses, Hotez believes, it is possible to eliminate life-threatening disease while at the same time creating unprecedented opportunities for science and diplomacy. Clear, compassionate, and timely, Blue Marble Health is a must-read for leaders in global health, tropical medicine, and international development, along with anyone committed to helping the millions of people who are caught in the desperate cycle of poverty and disease.