PHA-Exchange> Fwd: Coverage in Lancet

[pamzinkin]

>Delivered-To: pamzinkin at gn.apc.org
>Reply-To: "Mike Rowson" <mikerowson at medact.org>
>From: "Mike Rowson" <mikerowson at medact.org>
>To: "Pam Zinkin" <pamzinkin at gn.apc.org>
>Subject: Coverage in Lancet
>Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 17:34:10 +0100
>X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600
>
>Could you forward this to the relevant lists?
>Mike
>
>LANCET 18.05.02
>
>Brundtland sets out priorities at annual World Health Assembly
>
>WHO plans to step up its campaigns against poverty-related diseases whilst 
>also intensifying programmes aimed at tackling cardiovascular illnesses, 
>obesity, and other ailments of richer nations, director-general Gro Harlem 
>Brundtland told the annual world health assembly (WHA) on May 13.
>
>But as Brundtland set out WHO's priorities, activists criticised the 
>agency for doing too little to further its once vaunted goal of 
>health--and hence medicines--for all.
>
>"The world is living dangerously: either because it has little choice; or 
>because it is making the wrong choices about consumption and activity", 
>Brundtland said in her opening address to the 191-nation WHA, which 
>considered issues ranging from bioterrorism to infant feeding.
>
>She said she wanted to "reinvigorate WHO's work on diet, food safety, and 
>human nutrition, linking basic research with efforts to tackle specific 
>nutrient deficiencies in populations and the promotion of good health 
>through optimal diets".
>
>Brundtland said WHO should be proud of putting health firmly on political 
>agendas and for pioneering global initiatives such as Roll Back Malaria, 
>Stop TB, and immunisation partnerships. But far more was needed, she stressed.
>
>"We must further increase the funding for tackling the illnesses of 
>poverty. We must increase the number of people who can access treatments, 
>like antiretrovirals, at the same time as we scale up prevention 
>programmes. We must do all we can to increase access to essential 
>medicines and health technologies", she continued.
>
>As Brundtland was speaking in the elegant assembly hall, Médecins Sans 
>Frontières (MSF) stationed a truck carrying an exhibition entitled 
>"TRAPPED" outside the UN compound in a bid to drive home its concerns that 
>WHO isn't doing enough on this front.
>
>MSF hailed WHO's recognition of generic producers such as Cipla and the 
>recent inclusion of antiretrovirals on its list of essential medicines. 
>But it urged WHO to show more courage in taking on pharmaceutical giants 
>to further lower the price of drugs in poor countries and to take a higher 
>profile in the ongoing debate on free trade and patent protection.
>
>"WHO has been a follower, not a leader; an observer, not an actor", said 
>Ellen 't Hoen, coordinator of the MSF Access Campaign. "Be more active. We 
>need a strong public health voice for those who are silent", she appealed.
>
>Bernard Pecoul, an MSF director, lamented the omission of research and 
>development funding from the WHA agenda. He said WHO was minimising the 
>crisis caused by the chronic lack of industry interest in developing new 
>drugs against "neglected" diseases such as leishmaniasis and Chagas 
>disease and against increasingly resistant strains of malaria which affect 
>millions every year. Of the 1393 new drugs approved between 1975 and 1999, 
>only 13 were specifically indicated for a tropical disease, according to MSF.
>
>A grassroots coalition from developing countries, under the banner of the 
>People's Health Assembly, accused WHO of forgetting its former goal of 
>Health for All by 2000. "Data on very sensitive health indices including 
>infant, maternal, and under 5 mortality rates, life expectancy at birth, 
>and prevalence of malnutrition show the alarming fall of health 
>standards", the group said. "During a period of 10 years between 1990 and 
>2000, life expectancy of over a billion people has gone down by 10 years 
>from 50 to 40."
>
>Clare Kapp
>
>
>Medact is an organisation of health professionals challenging social and 
>environmental barriers to health.
>
>Medact
>601 Holloway Road
>London N19 4DJ
>United Kingdom
>T  +44 (0) 20 7272 2020
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><http://www.medact.org>www.medact.org
>new e-mail address for Mike Rowson:
><mailto:mikerowson at medact.org>mikerowson at medact.org

Pam Zinkin                              tel:44 (0)20 7609 1005
pamzinkin at gn.apc.org            fax:44 (0)20 7700 2699
45 Anson Road
London N7 OAR
UK
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