WHO NEWS
Recent news from WHO
- Dr Shigeru Omi, Regional Director of WHO's Regional Office for the Western Pacific called on donor countries and institutions to help raise US$ 260 million to support measures in developing countries to prevent the spread of avian influenza (see p. 809). WHO experts have warned that this avian influenza virus could potentially mutate into a form that could be easily passed from human to human, thus sparking a human influenza pandemic. Although the H5N1 virus has been found in birds in Europe, WHO experts said this mutation was more likely to take place in Asia, where humans have already become infected with H5N1 and died. WHO reminded the public that there is no evidence that avian influenza is food-borne and advised the public not to stockpile antiviral drugs.
- WHO is hosting a meeting of partners in Geneva from 78 November to coordinate funding for a global response to avian influenza and a possible human influenza pandemic. A new International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza, which the United States announced at the World Summit in New York, held its first planning meeting with other countries on 78 October in Washington, and Canada hosted a ministerial meeting on 2526 October to discuss policy issues and support the work of the partnership. Senior public health expert at WHO, Dr David Nabarro was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 29 September to coordinate the United Nations response to the threat of an influenza pandemic.
- Members of the Stop TB partnership finalized details of a new Stop TB strategy at a meeting in Versailles and Paris, France, 1517 October to help countries achieve Millennium Development Goal 6 to reduce tuberculosis cases by 2015. The strategy, which is due to be launched in coming months, continues the DOTS strategy of political commitment, case detection, standardized treatment, drug supplies and monitoring systems. In addition, the new strategy calls for closer collaboration on HIV/TB co-infection and multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis. The new strategy also seeks to promote efforts that strengthen health systems and engage public and private providers, and it seeks to empower patients and communities, and promote more research.
- Chronic diseases are by far the leading cause of death in the world and the impact of heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes is steadily growing, according to a new WHO report released on 5 October. The report: Preventing Chronic Diseases: a vital investment projects that some 17 million people will die prematurely every year as a result of chronic disease and that the vast majority of these deaths, or 80%, are in low-to-middle-income countries. The report estimates the economic impact of chronic diseases to be billions of dollars lost in national income in countries across the world as a result of heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes. The estimated accumulated losses to China from 2005 to 2015, for example, are US$ 558 billion, for India US$ 236 billion, and US$ 303 billion for the Russian Federation. http://www.who.int/chp/chronic_disease_report/en/
- On 10 October, WHO released the World Health Organization Mental Health Atlas 2005, an update on the first edition of 2001. The second edition contains the most complete global data available on mental health resources to date. The survey of 192 countries also shows a slight increase in the number of psychiatrists from 3.96 to 4.15 per 100 000 people worldwide. The disparity is huge, and ranges from 9.8 per 100 000 people in Europe to 0.04 in Africa. http://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/atlas/
For more about these and other WHO news items please see: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/2005/en/index.html 