UN Health Agency Launches New Plan to Help Elderly People (2)
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Dear Colleagues,
for more information on this plan, please see:
WHO Press Releases
World Health Organization launches new initiative to address the
health needs of a rapidly ageing population
More than one billion people will be over 60 years old by 2025
and, as populations age, the burden of chronic diseases will in-
crease. To help tackle the public health implications of ageing,
the World Health Organization (WHO) launched "Towards Age-
Friendly Primary Health Care", new general principles that will
serve as guidelines for community-based Primary Health Care
(PHC) centres:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2004/pr60/en/
WHO Site - About Ageing and Life Course
A demographic revolution is underway throughout the world. To-
day, world-wide, there are around 600 million persons aged 60
years and over; this total will double by 2025 and will reach
virtually two billion by 2050 - the vast majority of them in the
developing world:
http://www.who.int/hpr/ageing/index.htm
WHO site - Age-Friendly Community-Based Health Care
Community-based health care is generally the first point of con-
tact with formal health services and is often complemented by
social care. Health care provided at the community level should
also include a range of health promotion and disease prevention
activities. However, with a few exceptions, community-based
health care services are often fragmented and are not sensitive
to the needs of their older users. They may have inadequate re-
sources and little emphasis on health promotion, prevention,
systematic screening and referrals -- all of which are essential
for maintaining health of ageing populations:
http://www.who.int/hpr/ageing/perth_framework.htm
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Madeleine Anne Decker
Documentation Officer
WHO Mozambique
mailto:omsdoc@oms-mz.org