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HEALTH: Jam-Packed Agenda for WHO Assembly

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, May 14 2004 (IPS) - The World Health Assembly is set to take up the hottest issues in its area – HIV/AIDS, road safety, obesity and fighting disease like polio, measles and SARS – when ministers from around the globe sit down here next week.

World Health Organisation director-general Lee Jong-Wook, of South Korea, said the ministers from the 192 member states must hammer out ways to overcome many challenges, which range from detecting emerging disease to fighting the epidemics that have raged for decades.

In regards to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), the international community now has the "opportunity to change history by aiming to stop 8,000 people dying every single day" from this pandemic, said the WHO chief.

The member states have informed the United Nations health agency of plans to launch an offensive against HIV/AIDS, and the assembly, meeting May 17-22, will use roundtable discussions to build new approaches for action and the means to help each country integrate prevention programmes and treatment for the disease, said Lee.

Poliomyelitis is "on the brink of eradication," because the virus causing the disease is endemic in just six countries today, and "four of those six are on track to eliminate the disease by the end of this year." However, ongoing outbreaks in West and Central Africa pose ongoing challenges, he said.

The World Health Assembly will also discuss worldwide road safety, the theme of this year’s WHO annual report, in an effort to reduce the annual figures of around one million deaths and 50 million injuries caused by vehicle crashes.

The WHO wants the assembly "to look at how we can coordinate an approach to reduce world traffic deaths and injuries," which in relative terms are concentrated in developing countries.

On another front, the U.N. agency will work to fight obesity. "You know the essentials of the strategy, which is eat more vegetables, low fat foods and reduce the intake of sugar and salt, and do more exercise," said Lee.

He ruled out that the WHO strategy could hurt the world sugar trade. "Clearly with the increasing trend of food consumption, I don’t believe that this strategy will make a big impact on the consumption and export, the trade of sugar."

"But this is my estimate. I don’t have numbers," Lee added.

The assembly is also expected to take up political questions, such as the last-minute proposal by a group of countries to add to the agenda an item titled "Inviting Taiwan to participate in the World Health Assembly as an observer."

Within the U.N. system, the island is referred to as "Taiwan province of China" and is not granted recognition as a separate country or territory.

"Whenever this proposal for a supplementary agenda item has been made, starting in 1997 and in every year since then, the (assembly) has decided not to include the item on its agenda," said Lee.

Related to that matter, spokespersons for the foreign correspondents accredited by the U.N. in Geneva and the Swiss government criticised the fact that this year the WHO has refused the accreditations requested by Taiwanese journalists to cover the World Health Assembly next week.

Lee said that a year ago, when the Taiwanese reporters had indeed obtained accreditation to cover the event, he was not the WHO director-general yet and did not how the issue had been handled.

Spokeswoman for the WHO director general’s office, Christine McNab, explained that the U.N. public information office would not be granting them accreditation this year due to new security procedures.

Iraq is not on the agenda for the assembly discussions, but Lee commented that surely some member state would issue a statement about the health situation of that country, occupied by forces led by the United States.

The health status of the population living in the occupied Palestinian territories will, however, be a subject of discussion during the assembly, and Lee noted that recent reports from those areas reveal a critical situation.

Also to be assessed is the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which in one year has been signed by 111 countries and ratified by 12. Forty ratifications are needed for the treaty to enter into force.

When asked, "Is there any evidence that the Convention has already had some effect?" Lee responded, "Yes, if one can stop the smoking in the Irish pubs, I think anything will be possible."

The WHO’s finances are healthy, said the official. The agency was able to cover its regular annual budget of 400 million dollars without difficulty, and for extra-budgetary expenses – which reach 900 million dollars – there are enough pledges to cover 85 percent.