Greensburg and global health

ANN HUDOCK says to her fellow Western Pennsylvanians: Spending on international aid and development helps keeps us safe at home

Growing up in Greensburg, I remember my father, Judge Joseph Hudock, taking me on a trip to Pittsburgh to see the Duquesne University Tamburitzans. I came home from the Tamburitzans show amazed by the many cultures celebrated on stage. I dreamt about traveling the world to learn more. Several years later, with the support of a scholarship from a local Greensburg Rotary Club, I pursued my Ph.D. in development studies, and subsequently joined the U.S. Agency for International Development as one of their first Democracy Fellows.

Now an established international development professional, I have been fortunate through my career to travel the world and live in countries as diverse as Sierra Leone, Zambia and Vietnam. The world has become so much more interconnected in just three generations of us Greensburg natives. My grandfather, Greensburg Mayor Andrew Hudock, never even graduated from high school. I see why people may question why the U.S. government would consider funding medical care or antipoverty efforts in far-away countries when there are still needs here at home.

I believe that it is in our best interest as Americans that the U.S. continue to fund our global health and development investments through agencies like USAID. In today’s interconnected world, our global development budget actively keeps us safe from pandemics and infectious diseases.

American investments in global development reduce the likelihood that outbreaks like Ebola will reach our borders. After living in West Africa, I appreciated how an outbreak of a deadly virus like Ebola overloads already overburdened regional healthcare systems. During the Ebola panic of 2014, I was sad but not surprised to learn that a man from West Africa had unknowingly carried the virus into the U.S. when he traveled to Texas to visit his family.

Unlike other national security challenges, infectious viruses easily penetrate border security schemes. Even though Mr. Duncan was screened several times at the

airport for Ebola, the Ebola virus can take weeks to incubate in the body. Mr. Duncan did not know he was infected with the Ebola virus, nor did he show any symptoms of infection, until after he arrived at his family’s home in Texas. He died two weeks later.

While viruses like Ebola present new challenges, American leadership abroad has a decades-long track record of driving progress in global health. For example, HIV/AIDS used to be a death sentence, but thanks to programs like the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief established by President George W. Bush, we have significantly curbed the spread of HIV. Today, PEPFAR supports more than 13.3 million men, women, and children on lifesaving HIV treatment.

At this critical time for our health, the Trump administration proposed to cut America’s global development programs by 23 percent. This would impact several U.S. agencies that work around the world to stem infectious outbreaks at their source in the interest of safeguarding Americans’ health. For example, under the Trump administration’s proposal, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control could be required to withdraw from 39 countries.

I believe that this huge budget cut would be a mistake because we cannot isolate ourselves from the threat of infectious disease. Science has not yet discovered vaccinations that would prevent transmission of life-threatening viruses like Ebola. Our economy and our society are so interconnected with places like Africa that it is in our best interest to continue working to strengthen healthcare systems around the world.

As Americans, we have invested in our own health care systems to live healthier and longer lives. As a young girl, I remember our family driving through Downtown Pittsburgh, smelling the industrial pollution as we passed the fuming steel factories. That Pittsburgh was a far cry from the city I visited years later when one of my sons needed a medical operation. I knew that Pittsburgh’s state-of-the-art Children’s Hospital was the place to go. I marvel at how Pittsburgh adapted to the market tumult experienced by the steel industry and reinvented itself as modern international hub for medicine and business. Living and working around the world, I know the pain of parents who do not have access to life-saving health care like my family did.

Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress fought these severe cuts to our global development budget in the recent omnibus spending bill. But this debate will continue as Washington takes us to another government funding brink on Sept. 30.

Our global development budget already accounts for only less than 1 percent of our federal budget. If this budget is cut even further, health threats overseas could hurt people here at home.

Our international development work tangibly expresses the American values that make us great as a nation. I feel incredibly proud to be a native of Greensburg and a citizen of a country that honors its values by investing in our global development agencies that make the world a safer and healthier place for us all.