GLOBAL HEALTH | Addressing the world’s health challenges
20 May 2008
Global Health Conference Addresses Pandemic Flu, Climate Effects
Delegates from 193 nations gather in Geneva for 61st World Health Assembly
Washington -- Pandemic influenza preparedness, sharing of flu virus samples for research and the effects of climate change on human health are on the agenda May 19-24 in Geneva for the 61st annual meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA) -- the supreme decisionmaking body of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Representatives from 193 nations are gathered at the Palais des Nations, where participants also will discuss equitable access to vaccines, polio, the harmful use of alcohol, the International Health Regulations, counterfeit medical products and the smallpox virus stock.
“The United States strongly supports [WHO’s] efforts to meet the global need of influenza vaccine,” Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said during a May 19 press conference. “We continue to call on countries everywhere to share influenza samples openly and without precondition.” (See “Improvements in Flu Surveillance Network Goal of Geneva Meeting.”)
Leavitt, who heads the U.S. delegation, added that all nations “have a responsibility to participate fully in the Global Influenza Surveillance Network [GISN], and we must all work together to universally implement as well the International Health Regulations.” (See “Updated Rules Offer New Framework for Health Security.”)
The GISN, established in 1952, is a global alert mechanism for seasonal flu and emerging flu viruses with pandemic potential. Its main components are national influenza centers that monitor patients with flu-like illnesses and submit virus samples to WHO collaborating centers for genetic analyses.
Around the world, according to WHO, 382 people have been infected with highly pathogenic avian flu since 2003, and 241 have died.
LOOMING CRISES
The meeting opened with a moment of silence to recognize the millions of people affected May 2 by Cyclone Nargis in Burma and May 12 by the 7.9-magnitude earthquake in eastern Sichuan, China. The cyclone is blamed for more that 130,000 deaths and left more than 2 million homeless, while the earthquake has killed more than 40,000 people.
Representatives from China and Burma thanked the global community for support and aid provided, according to a report from the WHA.
“Three global crises are looming on the horizon,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said May 19 in her address to the WHA. “All three are international security threats. Two are beyond the direct control of the health sector. But for all three, human health will bear the brunt.”
The three are the global food crisis and food security, climate change and its effects on health, and pandemic influenza.
According to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in the past year global food prices have increased an average 43 percent. Figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show prices for wheat (by 146 percent), soybean (71 percent), corn (41 percent) and rice (29 percent) have increased since March 2007.
Factors contributing to this spike in food prices include increasing consumer demand for food, oil and energy supplies in China, India and other emerging markets. Rising energy costs directly have raised the cost of agricultural production, adverse weather events have lowered crop yields and rising biofuel production has triggered increases in the price of corn.
Around the world, 1 billion people live on less than $1 per day, many on less than 50 cents per day. Overall, higher food prices particularly affect developing countries and the poorest people in those countries, who spend a large part of their incomes on food.
“The crisis is suddenly upon us,” Chang said, “but the causes are complex and long in the making. The consequences will be with us for some time to come.”
WHO is part of a high-level task force on the global food security crisis, she added, and has identified 21 places around the world that already are experiencing high levels of acute and chronic undernutrition.
EFFECTS ON HEALTH
For the second looming crisis -- global climate change -- goals for the international response to protect health include:
• Ensuring concerns about public health security are at the center of the response to climate change;
• Implementing adaptive strategies at local, national and regional levels to minimize impacts of climate change on human health; and
• Supporting strong actions to mitigate climate change and avoid further dramatic and potentially disastrous effects on health.
The assembly will consider a draft resolution that gives WHO clear responsibilities for health security related to climate change. (See “Changing Climate Could Alter Biology of Infectious Diseases.”)
“Pandemic influenza is the third global crisis looming on the horizon,” Chang said. “The threat has by no means receded and we would be very unwise to let down our guard or slacken our preparedness measures. As with climate change, all countries will be affected, though in a far more rapid and sweeping way.
“Given the protective power in your hands,” she told the assembly, “it is vital for public health to present a united front. I urge you to keep this necessity in mind as you consider the draft resolution on the sharing of influenza viruses and access to vaccines and other benefits.”
More information about the 61st World Health Assembly is available on the WHO Web site. The full text of Secretary Leavitt's speech to the WHA is available on the Health and Human Services Web site.
