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readings: Public health and security  Is a state’s security
better achieved by military and diplomatic expenditure or by
investment in health, nutrition and housing? Healthy bodies and
minds form the nucleus of true security, says Swarna Rajagopalan
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), avian flu and H1N1 or
swine flu have captured the headlines in recent years,
underscoring how globalisation alters the spread of disease. The
profound, negative impact of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in sub-
Saharan Africa has also moved people to frame health issues in
terms of security.  While these epidemics have attracted a lot
of media and policy attention and there is a lot of funding for
HIV and AIDS work, public health activists point out that other
diseases continue to quietly take larger numbers of lives. From
a human security point of view, we see that there is a strong
case to be made for considering public health an important
dimension of security. To do so