التعددية اللغوية و الصحة

Abstract EN

The link between health and multilingualism is a close one due to the importance of the two topics in the lives of individuals and societies as the world has moved from separate countries and geographies to a small village through globalization while each of the two influences the other.

The importance of language has been recognized as it is the basic tool for connecting people where they communicate, publish, exchange ideas and thoughts.

Language represents the cultural aspect of nations.

In library and information science and eHealth, language is an essential part of the literature of these sciences and of the services they provide and the qualification of their professionals.

More important, it is the tool used to acquire information, and knowledge, build culture, exchange and deliver health services to others.

The importance of multilingualism in the United Nations system in general and WHO in particular has been discussed on more than one occasion and a number of resolutions have been adopted.

The paper attempts to compile and evaluate the evidence on the role and importance of multilingualism in promoting global health.

It considers global health issues directly affected and/ or facilitated by multilingualism, including multilingualism in health research in terms of dissemination and accessibility, international cooperation, scientific communication such as conferences and others, online health information and immigration, whether forced or voluntary migration, education and training of the workforce in the field of health and medicine, disaster management, tele-health and telemedicine, empowerment of individuals, networking and medical tourism.

In particular, the paper refers to cooperation and partnership between the public and private sectors to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely Universal Health Coverage, as part of the health goal through knowledge sharing and accessibility.

The paper concludes with compelling evidence that multilingualism is an essential means of achieving UHC which enables the production, storage, organization, exchange and use of knowledge.