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The Necessity Of Surgery Within A Global Health Context

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Introduction:
Global surgical interventions are a neglected, yet desperately needed, facet of global public health. Common global health approaches, such as prevention of disease through vaccination, are an absolute necessity. However, surgery is often overlooked as a sustainable, effective intervention because of erroneous beliefs about cost efficiency and fears over inadequate infrastructure. While these problems can hamper effective surgical interventions, this paper aims to show that global surgery can be an effective measure to address treatment and prevention of disease, as well as other ailments. Herein, the necessity of surgery within a global health context will be considered through a discussion of its history, its importance in the developing world, successful surgical interventions, and the complexity of implementation. Evidence will also be presented that surgery is not only important to increase quality of life in a cost-effective manner for underserved populations, but also because it forces global public health officials and funders to consider the structural imbalances that lead to ailments treated and/or prevented by this branch of medicine.
Intended Audience:
Governments, NGOs, and private individuals with the money and interest in global health.
Background:
Surgery is “the branch of medicine concerned with the treatment of disease, injury, and deformity by operation or manipulation” (WHO 2014). However, this definition by the World Health Organization

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