WHO NEWS
WHO announces "River of Life" winners
The winners of the WHO "River of Life" international photo competition were announced on 17 May to coincide with the presentation of WHO's first global strategy on reproductive health during the 57th World Health Assembly.
The competition title originated from the idea that the best way to show how reproductive and sexual health impacts all people was to invite photographers from around the world to capture the four key stages in the course of an individual's lifetime or "River of Life": Love, Life, Illness and Death.
There were seventeen winners overall comprising three winners per category and a Special Award for Outstanding Contribution to each category. A Special Award from the Assistant Director-General of WHO's department of Family and Community Health was given to a photograph entitled "Happiness Family" by A.K. Moe from Yangon, Myanmar (see overleaf ).
The photographers were asked to use their cameras to bring to life success stories in sexual and reproductive health and also to focus on the health inequities that exist in many countries. The competition is part of a broader effort on behalf of WHO to raise public awareness of the importance of sexual and reproductive health and the challenges faced by the international community in this area.
According to WHO, over half a million women die during pregnancy and childbirth every year. Unsafe abortions alone leave a further 70 000 women dead every year. In 2003, five million new cases of HIV infection occurred, 600 000 of which were infants infected due to mother-to-child transmission.
A panel of four expert photographers from England, South Africa, the United States and Switzerland, judged nearly 800 submissions from both amateurs and professionals. The seventeen winning shots (four of which are printed overleaf) by photographers from ten countries can be viewed at th e following URL: http://www.who.int/reproductive-health/results_photo_competition.html. 
Call for Papers on Human Resources and Health Workforce Constraints
The Bulletin of the World Health Organization is seeking original research papers dealing with human resources for health care, to accompany commissioned Policy and Practice papers in a theme issue on this subject in the first quarter of 2005. Papers should cover aspects of current shortfalls in specific health service delivery, particularly in developing countries, with evidence of the implications to the relevant burden of disease. We would like to encourage authors to submit original research, done to find ways of improving equitable access and referral systems, through better use of existing human resources, or sustainable increases in the local workforce. We will also consider related submissions to the other sections of the Bulletin: Perspectives, Round Tables, and Public Health Reviews. Manuscripts should be submitted to http://submit.bwho.org by 1 October 2004, following the usual Guidelines for Contributors, with a cover letter mentioning this call for papers.