Chapter 4 reveals that current EHR systems are siloed and are not interoperable with external systems and information portals. However, many foreign health agencies express discontent with them and long for a robust, flexible EHR system that allows information-sharing across multiple systems. Chapter 4 also reveals that zoonotic diseases such as the bubonic plague migrated across national borders through global trade, supply chains, immigration, war, and travel during the 14th century.
TopZoonotic Disease
Zoonotic diseases are infections that have a high rate of transmissibility between animals and humans. Most infectious diseases, 75%, are zoonotic. Zoonotic infections are quickly passed from animals to humans and, because of their lethality and ease of transmissibility, are a growing threat to the international community. Globalization creates variables such as increased international travel derived from business travel and global tourism, international trade and supply chain management, and exposure to Zoonosis diseases. The infected carrier then unknowingly infects others at a shipping port or an airport during a business or leisure trip to one of many popular global tourist destinations. When preventing the spread of disease, global leaders have several means to consider. However, the means to entry are through vulnerable openings in systems essential to a nation’s survival.
Global trade, international travel, logistics, and interoperability shortfalls have long been the source of the spread of zoonotic infestations. When an area or region is saturated with a highly infectious biological threat, it is deemed a hot zone. A hot zone is hazardous because there is a high risk of infection to those exposed to the environment. The challenge, however, is preventing the spread of disease without disrupting essential systems.
Global Trade
The 21st-century culture is a globalized, digitized, fast-paced network of manufacturers, supply chains, banks, information systems, and other elements. Global trade, shipping, and related transactions that took months to complete years ago now take weeks, and what used to take weeks to complete are completed in days or, in some cases, hours.
Secure and safe supply chains contribute to profitability or send a business to a slow and painful end. Furthermore, because global supply chains are critical to 21st-century nations, leaders ensure they are safe and free from infestations.
A supply chain involves all parties bringing a product to market to meet demands (Chopra & Meindl, 2010). Of course, in today’s globalized supply chain infrastructure, this includes domestic and international stakeholders, and all parties and procedural steps in this process are essential. A complex global supply chain is composed of many important links, such as those who work with the raw materials, the cargo ship crew who load and unload the containers, assemblers, warehousers, port authorities and inspectors, and the truck driver who delivers the container to the end-user. It is essential to note that the consumer is also part of the supply chain because consumer demand is the lifeblood of the supply chain.
The objective and purpose of the supply chain are to get the purchased product to the end-user. An unsafe supply chain due to infestations or disease has a crippling impact on stop-off points along the shipping route and the destination. Globally, the disease has killed more people than war (Norrie, 2016). Disease transmission is more deadly than war, but there are commonalities to war because the disease has the stealth and lethality of a Ninja but can rapidly overcome large countries like the Roman army. Another difference between disease and war is that a disease does not wear a uniform, making it recognizable from a distance. It does not have rules of engagement or rules of war. The disease does not make distinctions between alliances or recognize geographic boundaries and will kill anyone or anything that it encounters. The Bubonic Plague outbreak is an example of how unsafe supply chains and disease infestations are a recipe for the perfect storm.