Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Global Health Development Entering New Era: WHO

Global Health Development Entering New Era: WHO

GENEVA - World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Margaret Chan outlined Monday the challenges faced by the global community in light of current health issues while stressing the importance of meeting targets set by the UN Sustainable Development Goals agenda.
"The profile of health changed from a drain on resources to an investment that builds stable, prosperous and equitable societies, " she said in her address to the 69th World Health Assembly (WHA) held in Geneva.
"Health holds a prominent and central place that benefits the entire agenda. It aims to do nothing less than transform the way the world, and the international systems that govern it, work," she added.
Against the backdrop of past achievements, Chan said that more needs to be done to address myriad health scourges still affecting global communities in an increasingly interconnected world.
"Very few health threats are local anymore. And few health threats can be managed by the health sector acting alone," she said.
Drawing parallels with the Ebola crisis which resulted in over 11,000 deaths in West Africa, Chan cautioned that Zika is also testing concerted efforts to abate the spread of the mosquito-borne virus.
"For Zika, we are again taken by surprise, with no vaccines and no reliable and widely available diagnostics tests. To protect women of childbearing age, all we can offer is advice," she said.(Xinhua)