Globalization means that the world is more interconnected than ever before. Travel between countries is faster and easier — as many as 8 million people travel by plane each day, according to the International Air Transport Association — and global supply chains allow food and medicine to be transported between countries in a matter of days.

The question becomes, ‘How do we respond more rapidly in the early stages of an epidemic and ensure that countries with fragile health systems don’t end up accelerating the spread of disease?’ For example, with Ebola in West Africa many people went into the health care system sick with Ebola and either weren’t diagnosed or couldn’t be cared for safely, and so the disease propagated there.

But while this growing interconnectedness is a great boon to businesses and economic growth, it also means that diseases can spread faster and more unpredictably than ever before. The threats of global pandemics are very real: According to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, such threats represent by far the greatest global risk, with the potential to wipe out between 5 and 10 percent of the GDP of the world’s economy, as well as having the potential to kill tens of millions of people.

Read the full article by Malia Politzer at Devex International Development