Democracy turns disease and overall health
Ruger 05 – Jennifer Prah Ruger is a leading scholar of global and domestic health policy and public health. She is currently the Amartya Sen Professor of Public Health Equity, Economics, and Policy; Associate Dean for Global Studies; and Faculty Chair at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy, all at the University of Pennsylvania. (Harvard University, PhD, Health Policy. Yale University, MSL, Law. Oxford University, MSc, Comparative Social Research. Tufts University, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, MA, International Relations – Qualified as hell) “Democracy and health” 2005, Q J Med, http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/qjmed/98/4/299.full.pdf
Democratic institutions and practices can affect human development in multiple ways, including population health and well-being. The absence of democracy, in particular, can have deleterious affects on health, as the 1958–1961 Chinese famine and the 2003 SARS outbreak demonstrate. These case studies highlight factors that are essential for preventing a full-scale HIV/AIDS epidemic in China: new and better standards of public accountability; an international imperative to cooperate globally to ensure health; freely available information, especially about disease prevention, control, and treatment; protection of individual rights and freedom of assembly, association and expression; and the ability to voice complaints and opposition. By instituting these rights in a timely fashion, China may be able to contain the HIV/AIDS epidemic before it loses millions of its citizens to yet another public health tragedy.