Human health threats and implications for regional security in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Health threats including infectious diseases, natural and man-made disasters and environmental change impact human populations worldwide, but they are especially challenging for vulnerable populations in many of the developing nations of Southeast Asia. These health security issues also represent non-traditional regional and global security challenges, which threaten human security more broadly in multiple, complex ways. In 1994 the United Nations Development Report included health security within its defi nition of human security, which it defi ned as, " safety from such chronic threats as hunger, disease and repression, and protection from sudden and hurtful disruptions in the patterns of daily lives, whether in homes, jobs or communities"(UNDP 1994 : 23). This is recognition that the traditional understanding of security as related to military and police issues is no longer adequate.