Transcription
Okay, technology and globalization; it's great and all, but here's where I tell you that those realities have their, uh, limitations. And so, in this video, we're going to talk about one of the main scourges of the globalized world: namely, disease. So, if you're ready to get them brain cows milk COVID-19 style, well, let's get to it.
Okay, you shouldn't be a surprise to you by this point that the world's wealth is not exactly evenly distributed. There are rich countries, and there are poor countries, and everything in between. I'm not just flapping my mouth hole about economic inequality for funsies. When it comes to diseases in the modern era, there's a very clear geographical distribution of certain diseases that corresponds to levels of wealth and development. Therefore, although medical technology was developed to assess and cure many common diseases in the last century, access to that technology has not been equal. So that means populations of wealthy nations with well-developed health care systems have far greater access to the various medical interventions that address disease, and less developed nations, well, they don't. Therefore, it tends to be among impoverished populations that diseases for which cures are available still persist. And I'm feeling saucy, so I'm going to give you two examples now.
The first disease associated with poverty is malaria, which is a disease spread by infected mosquitoes and it typically occurs in large numbers throughout warmer tropical regions. You know, malaria, in case you never had it, is not fun. People infected with malaria experience flu-like symptoms, but in some cases, complications often result in death. And though effective medical interventions for malaria have been developed, not to mention more practical measures like mosquito nets, there are still hundreds of thousands of deaths per year in impoverished regions of the world, most notably sub-Saharan Africa.
And then second is tuberculosis, which is an airborne disease that severely affects the lungs and can be fatal. And look, a cure was developed at the end of the 19th century, but again, access to this intervention is disproportionately favoring wealthy countries, which is why TB remains a disease associated with poverty. And hey, before I tell you about everyone's favorite disease-related topic, namely pandemics, let me just tell you that if you need help studying for that National exam, then you should for sure check out my AP World History review guide, which is everything you need to study as fast as possible. It's got whole unit review videos that you're not going to see here on YouTube, no guides to follow along, practice questions, practice exams, and answer keys for every dang bit of it. So if that's something you're into, the link is down in the description.
Okay, now the second big category of disease after 1900 we need to consider is epidemics and pandemics. And I'll give you a couple of examples, but you also need to remember two very important things about this: First, the spread of diseases caused no small amount of social disruption, which is a fancy way of saying that people were dying all over the dang place, and that caused an awful lot of problems. And second, the crisis caused by these diseases often led to new technological and medical advances.
Okay, so the first big spread of disease that you need to know was the 1918 influenza pandemic. Now, you may have heard this called the Spanish Flu, which is all kinds of a misnomer for all kinds of reasons that I can't get into right now, but just for clarity, Spanish Flu, 1918 influenza pandemic, same thing. Anyway, this is the deadliest pandemic of the 20th century, and it happened to occur right after World War I was drawing to a close. So, you know, thankfully it showed up just in time to put the cherry on top of the giant mass death Sunday that was the Great War. So just like earlier pandemics, it spread rapidly and globally along travel and trade routes because of all the increasing global interconnection. Ultimately, the pandemic claimed something like 50 million lives over the course of 2 years and had a massive impact on demographic traffics across the world, especially since it disproportionately affected people of working age. And unfortunately, this flu virus just mowed people down by the millions because medical scientists were unable to develop any significant interventions to stop the spread of the virus.
And then the second epidemic you need to know is the spread of HIV/AIDS, which starting in the 1980s led to the deaths of millions of people worldwide. Man, I'm just starting to realize this is a pretty depressing video, but we'll carry on. So, in case you don't know, HIV is the virus that causes AIDS, which severely depresses the immune system, making a person vulnerable to other diseases which they could otherwise fight off. And because this disease was associated early with gay men and drug addicts, funding for research into this cure was, to put it mildly, difficult to come by. However, by the 1990s, those prejudices were largely discarded, and new medical interventions were developed to treat the disease, and that has led to this once deadly disease becoming more of a chronic illness. And that's nice, but again, because the drugs are expensive, AIDS remains a deadly disease among impoverished communities, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
And then third, the pandemic you've all been waiting for, the pandemic that many of you actually lived through: COVID-19. So, despite the medical advances of the 20th and 21st centuries, this new pandemic emerged in 2020 and was transmitted through the air. Because of our deeply interconnected planet, the disease spread globally in real fact, and as you may recall, COVID-19 affected societies by requiring the closure of schools and businesses as well as affecting global economics. Even so, a vaccine for the disease was developed rapidly to combat the virus and distributed globally, to which I say, noise.
Finally, the last category of disease we need to briefly consider is the growing prevalence of diseases associated with old age. You see, now that medical technology has afforded many people in more developed countries maybe an extra decade or two to live, there are some diseases that are simply associated with living longer lives. First is Alzheimer's disease, which is a form of dementia that disproportionately affects the aging population. Those who are affected with it suffer memory loss, and as the disease progresses, it undermines basic bodily functions and can eventually lead to death. And then second is heart disease. So, as it turns out, an extra decade to live means 10 more years to stuff Big Macs into my mouth hole, and as it further turns out, that is not great for my heart. And there are also genetic factors as well, but the point is, as people live longer, especially in developed nations, heart disease has become a massive problem affecting the health of millions.
Okay, click here to keep reviewing for unit 9, and click here to get all the help you need studying for that National exam with my AP World History review guide. I'm glad we got to hang out, and I'll catch you on the flip-flop. I'm L out.