If the field of global health is to evolve in the second decade of the new millennium, we need to revive the idealistic spirit and by using the lens of health equity work toward improved health status around the world. Morality and empathy are considered by-products of our evolutionary history as a human species. Idealism may be a trait that we may choose to preserve in our modern evolutionary history.
Sen A.The idea of justice. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; 2009.
2.
Whitehead M.The concepts and principles of equity and health . Int J Health Serv. 1992; 22: 429-445.
3.
Friel S., Bell R., Houweling T., Marmot M.Calling all Don Quixotes and Sancho Panzas: achieving the dream of global health equity through practical action on the social determinants of health . Glob Health Promot. 2009; 16 Supp. 1; 13: 19.
4.
Marmot M.Health in an unequal world. Lancet. 2006; 368: 2081-2094.
5.
Sen A.Why health equity? Health Econ. 2002; 11: 659-666.
6.
Murakami H.Thailand. In Murakami H.After the quake. New York: Vintage International; 2002.
7.
Gwatkin DR, Wagstaff A, Yazbeck A, editors. Reaching the poor with health, nutrition, and population services: what works, what doesn’t, and why. Washington, DC: The World Bank; 2005.
8.
de Waal A.Famine Crimes: Politics & the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press; 1997.
9.
Koplan JP, Bond CT, Merson MH, Reddy KS, Rodriguez MH, Sewankambo NK, Wasserheti JNTowards a common definition of global health. Lancet.2009; 373(9769): 1993-1995.
10.
The Lancet.Who runs global health. Lancet. 2009; 373(9681): 2083.
11.
De Waal F.Primates and philosophers: how morality evolved . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; 2008.
