International health officials reassess global public health goals

Gathered for the 63rd meeting of the United Nations' World Health Assembly, international health officials from around the globe spent four days this past week lauding the successes and pondering the challenges facing the arena of public health. Just five years separate the international health agency from its deadline to meet the eight key public health goals member countries set in 2000. And yet even as member countries grow closer to achieving those goals, they acknowledge the fact that newer threats - typically associated with the developed world - are casting an even greater shadow over too many of the world's people. In particular: lifestyles that lead to increased risk for heart disease, diabetes and asthma.

In her opening address, WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan told international health officials that there was no time to waste in reaching the Millennium Development Goals. It can only be done, she said, with full, concentrated effort and without any "unproductive debate." Those goals are:
•    Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
•    Achieve universal primary education
•    Promote gender equality and empower women
•    Reduce child mortality
•    Improve maternal health
•    Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
•    Improve environmental sustainability
•    Create global partnerships for development

Chan also raised another point that gives international health goals, and indeed the entire concept of public health, even more significance and weight: it shows what the world can do when everyone comes together, not just on health issues, but on all issues. "Success in public health nearly always saves lives. But it also has symbolic value. Recent progress tells us that when the international community is fully committed to a goal, creative solutions can be found and obstacles, including financial ones, can be overcome." Furthermore, Chan laid out the true motive behind international health efforts: to "promote health as part of an overarching strategy for poverty reduction. To put it bluntly, if we miss the poor, we miss the point."

Chan is indeed right. Some diseases that demand the attention of international health and public health officials know neither class nor citizenship. But too many of the struggles international health officials face have more to do with money - that is, getting the right vaccines and medicines into the hands of the people who don't have easy access to them and can't travel to seek out those services. It makes the success of smallpox eradication so amazing: A non-curable disease that caused so much human suffering is gone. It can be done. We just need to commit to do it.

Photo Credit: kcp4911