Global health investments help make America safer
The Zika and Ebola outbreaks serve as sobering reminders that disease knows no borders. Containment, prevention and evidence-based treatment of epidemics are national security matters that we cannot afford to underestimate or underfund. U.S. investments in disease programs like the Global Fund support strengthened health infrastructure to help prevent future deadly threats like Ebola and Zika from spreading to U.S. soil.
Furthermore, bipartisan analysis has found that global health investments generate goodwill overseas, accelerate development, and reduce social and political instability in countries with a heavy burden of infectious diseases. According to surveys, public opinion regarding the U.S. improves in countries that receive U.S. health assistance.
Global health investments help to make developing countries stronger, more stable and more prosperous, which in turn paves the way for these countries to solve their own problems, share responsibility for regional and global security challenges, and participate as trading partners with the U.S.
Read more about how U.S. leadership in global health protects our country’s own health security in our brief “Disease Knows No Borders – Global Health Security Investments Make America Safer“
Learn how the Global Fund helped alleviate stress on West African health systems during the Ebola crisis.