HEALTH: WHO Prepares Specialists to Fight Epidemics in Poor Nations

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Feb 8 2001 (IPS) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has opened a centre in the French city of Lyon to train professionals from developing countries in techniques for detection and containment of epidemics and emerging diseases.

WHO chief Gro Harlem Brundtland said communicable diseases, “especially those that can cause epidemics, often strike developing countries which lack the capacity and experience to rapidly diagnose and respond to outbreaks.”

The Lyon office’s mission is “to strengthen the capacity of developing countries to contain epidemics and emerging diseases, including the detection of drug resistance,” she stated at the inauguration Thursday.

This will contribute to global health security, stated Brundtland during a ceremony that included the French aid minister, Dominique Gillot, and Lyon mayor, Raymond Barre.

The Lyon office will provide technical information to specialists from around the world who work in the area of epidemic control. Upon return to their countries, these professionals will be ready to assist in the rapid detection of the leading epidemic and emerging diseases.

The centre, which reports to the WHO Department of Communicable Diseases, Surveillance and Response (CSR), has the backing of the Municipality of Lyon, the French government and the Marcel Merieux Foundation.

In 1998, communicable diseases caused the deaths of more than 13 million people worldwide, with most occurring among the poorest populations of developing countries.

At the WHO’s Lyon centre, disease specialists are to begin courses in laboratory techniques in April.

Training is to include diagnostic methods for the principal epidemic diseases, such as cholera, yellow fever and several types of meningitis and hepatitis – all are illnesses that have contributed to deepening poverty in several countries of the developing South.

The experts will also receive the latest tools for dealing with emerging diseases like the Ebola and Marburg haemorrhagic fevers.

The coursework covers “the analysis and monitoring of infectious agents that are resistant to anti-microbials.” Resistance is proving to be increasingly common industrialised and developing countries alike, posing serious problems for treatment of the ill.

The WHO reports that in the last two decades more than 30 new communicable diseases have been identified, and that there has been a resurgence of ailments that were thought to be eradicated.

The United Nations health agency states that the development of resistance to anti-microbials recorded in recent years also constitutes one of the greatest public health challenges for the immediate future.

The choice of Lyon as the home for the new centre, according to the WHO, is justified by the excellent reputation of this regional capital in the areas of medicine and biotechnology.

Also headquartered in Lyon is the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), another WHO organisation.