E-DRUG: WHA press release and resolutions
------------------------------------------
[crossposted from DRUGINFO with thanks to Andy
for being the correspondent in Geneva.
2 messages in 1. NN]
Hi all
As always, it's worthwhile seeing how WHO's own PR efforts
portray the outcomes of the Assembly. A press release (available
at http://www.who.int/inf-pr-2001/en/pr2001WHA-6.html) starts
with the statement that: "After eight days of intense deliberations
the 54th World Health Assembly closed its business in Geneva
today. The biggest event in the annual calendar for the World
Health Organization (WHO), the Assembly charts the global
course for the Organization and its 191 Member States in dealing
with major public health threats."
Here's how it portrays the Medicines Strategy resolution:
"Another important resolution linked to access to drugs was the
one on WHO medicines strategy. Highlighting the fact that one-
third of the human population still lacks access to essential drugs,
the resolution urges Member States to promote equitable access
to medicines. It requests the WHO Director-General to "stimulate
the development of drugs for diseases whose burden lies
predominantly in poor countries" and to "enhance efforts to study
and report on existing and future health implications of international
trade agreements". It also speaks of the need for "systems for
voluntary monitoring drug prices and reporting global drug prices
with a view to improving equity in access to essential drugs in
health systems"."
Two other sections have drug policy import. The first deals with
suggested policy on schistosomes and soil-transmitted helminths:
"One-third of the world�s population is infected by schistosomes
and soil-transmitted helminths worldwide with 300 million
experiencing severe morbidity. These infections are invariably more
prevalent in the poorest sections of the least developed countries.
Repeated chemotherapy with safe, single-dose affordable drugs at
regular intervals keeps the infection at bay. The Assembly adopted
a resolution urging Member States to "ensure access to essential
drugs against schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminth
infections in all health services in endemic areas for the treatment
of children, women and other groups at risk of morbidity, with a
goal of attaining a minimum target of regular administration of
chemotherapy to at least 75% of all school-age children at risk of
morbidity by 2010"."
The second, which dominated the Assembly in many ways, related
to the UN Secretary-General's speech and HIV:
"For the first time in the history of the Organization, the United
Nations Secretary-General addressed the Assembly. In his AIDS-
focused speech, Mr Kofi Annan outlined the structure of a multi-
billion dollar Global AIDS and Health Fund to fight HIV/AIDS and
"other infectious diseases that blight the prospects for many
developing countries � starting with TB and malaria".
In a resolution on the global response to HIV/AIDS, Member States
to the Assembly called on WHO Director-General to "take an
active part, together with other international actors, in the
development and establishment of a global HIV/AIDS and health
fund and to maintain close collaboration with the international
community and the private sector with the aim of providing the
availability of medicines for HIV/AIDS, including antiretroviral
therapy"."
regards
Andy