PHA-Exchange> 'Hyper on SARS, silent on WARS'- Will the new WHO DG break the silence?(Press release from the PHM

[Aviva]

 May 22nd 2003)

 People's Health Movement
URGENT                                                                 
                   PRESS RELEASE
(For media enquiries, call Geneva: 078- 876 5437 (dial +41 78 876 5437 
from abroad)
'Hyper on SARS, silent on WARS'
Will the new  WHO DG break the silence ? 
Geneva, May 22, 2003:  The People's Health Movement congratulates Dr.
Jong-Wook Lee as he assumes his position as the new Director-General of
the World Health Organisation. Dr Lee takes over the organisation at a
time when its relevance to the public health needs of the world's poor
and marginalized is at its lowest point in recent history. 

The PHM therefore extends its welcome to the new incumbent with several
words of caution. If the WHO is to truly remain a ' world' body and
address the real 'health' needs of the ordinary people it needs to
urgently:

·        Broaden its analysis to include the socio-economic and
political determinants of people's health

·        Identify and address the impact of global neo-liberal economic
policies on health of the poor

·        Place people's health first. Resist the greed of drug and junk
food corporations

·        Oppose all wars, conflict and the arms trade as detrimental to
public health

·        Change its current selective, disease focused and donor driven
approach to public health

·        Implement the Alma Ata vision of Primary Health Care as the
cornerstone of national health systems everywhere

WHO's politically expedient, selective approach can be illustrated by
two major events in just the past few months- the illegal invasion of
Iraq by the United States and United Kingdom and the global outbreak of
SARS.

As of 20 May, 2003 a cumulative total of 7919 probable cases of SARS
with 662 deaths have been reported from 28 countries. This is over a
period of six months since the outbreak was first reported in China.  

Compare this to the number of casualties in Iraq since the US/UK
invasion began on April 14, 2003. According to independent estimates,
anywhere between 4000 and 5000 innocent men, women and children have
died in Iraq due to the invasion in just two months. Apart from this
over 20,000 Iraqi troops who have been killed in this illegal war,
prosecuted against international majority opinion and UN policy. 
While in the case of SARS the WHO has rightly issued global alerts,
mobilised governments around the world, brought together the best
medical research facilities available and galvanised public opinion in
the case of the war on Iraq it has chosen to remain completely silent.
Today, as the people of Iraq live and die for want of basic necessities
such as clean drinking water, adequate quality food, electricity and
medical care the WHO has been reduced to mumbling banalities without
the will or wherewithal to prevent this public health disaster. 

While the PHM has chosen to highlight WHO's response to SARS versus its
inaction in the case of the war on Iraq it can easily be pointed out
that the WHO does not show the same sense of urgency in the case of a
series of other public health disasters also, all of which kill
millions of people annually. To cite just two examples:

-         As many as 1 billion human beings - one out of six on our
planet - are under-nourished and go to bed hungry each night. Each day,
19,000 people die of hunger and hunger-related diseases.  

-         30,000 children die every day from preventable diseases most
of them linked to under nutrition.

In these cases the causes are clear- an increasingly unfair and unjust
world where health as a human right has been eclipsed by the profit
motive.

The PHM urges the incoming WHO Director General to ponder deeply over
what role he would like his organization to play. Will it be a body
which wants to be the premier international institution advising and
mobilising governments to tackle the public health needs of their
poorest people? Or, will the WHO become a silent partner in the
undermining of their health and livelihoods by the rich and the
powerful? The people of the world will be watching closely.

Dr. Ravi Narayan                                             
Ms. Garance Upham                

Co-ordinator, PHM Secretariat                        
President, PHM-Geneva International.

People's Health Movement is a people-oriented global initiative that
evolved out of the People's Health Assembly (PHA), a historic summit
that was held in December 2000 in Bangladesh. Over 1453 participants
from 92 countries met for the PHA that was the culmination of 18 months
of preparatory action around the globe.

For media enquiries, please call: May 15th till May 24th

Geneva: Local mobile: 078- 876 5437 (dial +41 78 876 5437  from abroad)
 

France : Mobile  +33 660 839 448 

For PHM media enquiries (permanent contacts) :

India: Dr. Unnikrishnan PV , +91 (0) 98450 91319     :  
unnikru at yahoo.com 

London: Andrew Chetley, London : +44 20 7539 1591
chetley.a at healthlink.org.uk

Thailand: Satya Sivaraman (E-mail: satyasagar at yahoo.com )