globalization and disease globalization and disease globalization, the flow of information, goods, capital, and people across political and geographic boundaries, allows infectious diseases to rapidly spread around the world, while also allowing the alleviation of factors such as hunger and poverty, which are key determinants of global health. the spread of diseases across wide geographic scales has increased through history. early diseases that spread from asia to europe were bubonic plague, influenza of various types, and similar infectious diseases.