61st World Health Assembly
Notes from Day 5: Friday, 23 May 2008
Plenary
Polio: After deliberation yesterday, a resolution was adopted today on "Poliomyelitis: mechanism for management of potential risks to eradication". Highlighting individual polio-endemic countries, the resolution calls on Nigeria to reduce the risk of international spread of poliovirus by ensuring that all children in the north of the country are vaccinated against polio. The resolution also notes the low levels of transmission of type 1 poliovirus in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan and urges those countries to carry out large-scale vaccination campaigns around any reported cases. Type 1 is the more paralytic of the two surviving types of wild poliovirus in the world.
COMMITTEES
Female genital mutilation: There was broad and strong support for the elimination of female genital mutilation (FGM). This led to the adoption of a resolution, in which Member States have committed themselves to accelerating action towards the elimination of this practice through legislative, educational and community-based efforts. Moreover, women and girls who have undergone FGM will be better supported, particularly as regards their care during childbirth, as well as in the social and psychological areas. "The abandonment of this harmful, but still widespread, practice will spare girls and women a host of serious health consequences. It will also be major step forward towards attaining three of the Millennium Development Goals on gender equality, child mortality and maternal health," said Ms. Daisy Mafubelu, Assistant Director-General, Family and Community Health.
Millennium Development Goals: To facilitate progress towards the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a resolution urged WHO to intensify work on the monitoring, analysing and annual reporting of countries' health system performance and indicators related to the achievement of Millennium targets. Member States urged WHO to support countries needing assistance and pay special attention to the high priority topics of women's health and Africa, two areas where progress towards the MDGs has been particularly slow.
Noncommunicable diseases: After substantive discussions, Committee A endorsed a six-year action plan for "Prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases: implementation of the global strategy". Within the action plan, six objectives and numerous actions are proposed for international partners, WHO Member States and Secretariat with the purpose of mapping emerging epidemics of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), reducing NCD risk factors in countries and strengthening health care for people with NCDs. Noncommunicable diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases, caused 60% of all deaths globally in 2005 (estimated at 35 million deaths), with low- and middle-income countries the worst affected. These diseases are largely preventable by addressing four modifiable, and common risk factors, namely tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol.
Global immunization strategy: A resolution on a global immunization strategy received broad support and was approved by Member States. Countries have engaged themselves to take steps to reach the ambitious 2010 immunization goals on reducing measles deaths by 90% and achieving equitable vaccination coverage of at least 80% in all districts. They will also stimulate rapid introduction and uptake of life-saving vaccines. Use of new vaccines, such as those for high-burden pneumococcal disease, rotavirus or human papillomavirus, and expansion of underutilitized vaccines could have a significant impact on the health of the peoples of the world. "The full potential of vaccination has unfortunately not yet been realized. Immunization is already averting 2-3 million deaths every year, but so much more could be done. A lot of unnecessary suffering, disease and death could be avoided," said Ms Daisy Mafubelu, Assistant Director-General, Family and Community Health. Countries, many of which are concerned about the cost of new vaccines, were in favor of creating a competitive marketplace to bring down price.
Reducing the harmful use of alcohol: Today, a resolution which calls upon the Director-General to present a draft global strategy aimed at reducing the harmful use of alcohol to the World Health Assembly in 2010 was approved. The work on the draft strategy will start immediately and Member States will be consulted throughout the drafting process. The resolution also requests the Director- General to consult with intergovernmental organizations, health professionals, nongovernmental organizations and economic operators on ways they could contribute to reducing harmful use of alcohol. The draft global strategy will first be presented to the Executive Board of WHO in January 2010.
TECHNICAL BRIEFINGS
Tobacco control: Tobacco use is now the world’s leading preventable cause of death, killing more than 5 million people a year and projected to kill up to 1 billion this century. In May 2003, Member States unanimously adopted the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). To scale up the work under FCTC, the WHO Report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2008, known as MPOWER, outlined six proven strategies to help Member States reduce tobacco use in their countries:
- monitor tobacco use and tobacco-prevention policies;
- protect people from tobacco smoke in public places and workplaces;
- offer help to people who want to stop using tobacco;
- warn people about the dangers of tobacco;
- enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; and
- raise tobacco taxes and prices.
Today's technical briefing provided Member States with an overview of the current status of the tobacco epidemic, the implementation of the WHO FCTC and the MPOWER package. Two examples - from Uruguay and the Islamic Republic of Iran - showed how tobacco use has been effectively reduced in these countries.