{"id":10669,"date":"2003-02-01T10:46:17","date_gmt":"2003-02-01T10:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/?p=10669"},"modified":"2014-05-28T16:48:12","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T16:48:12","slug":"lancet-special-report-examines-direction-new-who-director-general-should-take-on-several-hivaids-related-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/10669","title":{"rendered":"Lancet special report examines direction new WHO director general should take on several HIV\/AIDS-related issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a special report, the 4 January issue of the Lancet offers 12 opinion pieces that make recommendations as to the role the new director general of the World Health Organization should play, the issues that need to be addressed and the direction in which the organisation should proceed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several of the pieces examine HIV\/AIDS-related issues. Short summaries of some of these pieces follow:<\/p>\n

Ken Bluestone, senior policy adviser, Voluntary Service Overseas: The HIV\/AIDS epidemic places \u201cunimaginable burdens\u201d on the public health sector, as \u201cmore and more\u201d trained health care professionals \u201csuccumb to the virus,\u201d Bluestone writes, adding that without these professionals, \u201cthe best international policies are meaningless.\u201d In order to \u201cmeet these challenges,\u201d WHO must \u201cstrengthen its resolve to maintain its independence and lead its member states, even at the risk of causing controversy.\u201d According to Bluestone, the agency is the \u201conly global institution that has the remit to drive this agenda forward, yet has failed to do so convincingly.\u201d In conclusion, Bluestone writes that the new director general \u201cmust support and reinvigorate the advocacy efforts of the organization and provide a proper counterbalance to the interests of the pharmaceutical industry and wealthy member states\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kenneth Roth, executive director, Human Rights Watch: The credibility of WHO\u2019s \u201cadvocacy of the right to health for all has been eroded in recent years\u201d because of the organisation\u2019s \u201cfailure to challenge the pharmaceutical industry on access to medicines for people with HIV\/AIDS.\u201d According to Roth, the new director general must \u201clead the organisation to stand consistently with those most deprived of health services\u201d in order to \u201cre-establish WHO\u2019s credibility\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nathan Ford, access to medicines adviser, and Jean-Michel Piedagnel, executive director, Medecins Sans Frontieres: WHO must continue to speak out \u201cin clear support of allowing medicine production and export as an exception to patent rights\u201d in order to provide \u201caffordable antiretrovirals\u201d for the estimated 5.7 million people with AIDS \u201cwho currently need treatment but are left without.\u201d \u201cIn the face of rising infectious diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and the increasing marginalisation of health problems that do not affect the developed world … the importance of an international, independent organisation that is brave, aggressive and vocal in its defence of global public health has never been more important\u201d.<\/p>\n

Harvey Dale, president, International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations: Because \u201cfar more work is needed to improve access to health care and medicines,\u201d the new director general \u201cwill have to look more fundamentally at the problems and issues\u201d surrounding patents for antiretroviral drugs and the \u201cbarriers to drug access in poor countries\u201d. According to Dale: \u201cIn its history, WHO has not, in its drug policies, focused sufficiently on the task of expanding access to inexpensive generic medicines that could make the greatest difference in reducing morbidity and mortality – and this fact does not bode well for success in the AIDS struggle as the patent debates are likely to subside over time\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mohga Kamal Smith, health policy adviser, Oxfam GB: The \u201cinadequate international response\u201d in the fight against HIV\/AIDS \u201cdemonstrates the lack of serious commitment to health of many governments in both developed and developing countries\u201d. Despite WHO\u2019s \u201clong history of effective leadership on medicines,\u201d the \u201ccutting edge advocacy in this area is being undertaken by non-governmental organisations\u201d. According to Kamal Smith, WHO \u201chas not been outspoken on the preeminence of patients\u2019 rights to access to medicines over commercial rights in a worsening global health crisis\u201d. Smith concludes: \u201cThe issue of access to medicines will be seen as a benchmark of WHO commitment to the interests of poor people.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Deane, executive director, Panos London: Because WHO has been \u201cfar from consistent\u201d with its work on HIV\/AIDS, the organisation needs to focus on three areas where it has \u201chistorically performed poorly: cooperation, communication and leadership\u201d. According to Deane, the new director general must \u201cput institutional pride and profile emphatically in second place to coherence and cooperation across the UN system\u201d; follow the lead of South Africa\u2019s Treatment Action Campaign, which \u201cchanged government policy and mobilised massive local and international public awareness\u201d; and \u201cengage in political and economic discourse, with all the vibrant debate and discussion this brings.\u201d The \u201cpriorities\u201d of the new WHO director, Deane writes, are \u201cintensely political, often controversial and require serious vision and leadership\u201d.<\/p>\n

Free full text of all these reports is available online at:
\nhttp:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journal\/vol361\/iss9351\/editorial_and_review<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: KaiserNetwork Daily HIV\/AIDS Report
\nhttp:\/\/www.kaisernetwork.org\/daily_reports\/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=15309<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a special report, the 4 January issue of the Lancet offers 12 opinion pieces that make recommendations as to the role the new director general of the World Health Organization should play, the issues that need to be addressed …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-treatment-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}