The 59th session of World Health Assembly (WHA), the supreme decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO) agreed to form an intergovernmental working group open to all interested Member States to draw up a global strategy and plan of action to develop medicines for neglected diseases of the developing countries.
The WHA, which concluded on May 27 at Geneva, declared that the idea is to provide a medium-term framework based on the recommendations of the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health to address the need for people in developing countries to access necessary medicines, vaccines and diagnostics.
The working group shall report to the Sixtieth World Health Assembly on the progress made, giving particular attention to needs-driven research and other potential areas for early implementation action. It shall submit the final global strategy and plan of action to the Sixty-first World Health Assembly.
The WHA adopted a resolution on International Trade and Health. The WHA urged Member States to work at national level to coordinate trade and health policies among the ministries of finance, health, and trade, and to engage other relevant public and private-sector stakeholders in dialogue on the challenges and opportunities that international trade and trade agreements present for public health. The Assembly called on the WHO Secretariat to support Member states' abilities to develop coherence in their trade and health policies, and to work with other competent international organizations on policy coherence and in generating and sharing of evidence on the relationship between trade and health.
Recognizing sickle-cell anaemia as a common genetic disorder among people whose ancestors come from sub-Saharan Africa, India, Saudi Arabia and the Mediterranean and that about 300 000 infants are born with major haemoglobin disorders each year, the WHA adopted a resolution to develop and strengthen efforts to prevent and manage sickle-cell anaemia, particularly in affected low and middle income countries.
The WHA passed a resolution on HIV/AIDS and nutrition, which calls on Member States to ensure that special attention be given to integrating nutrition into all HIV/AIDS policies and programmes and to ensure that countries are able to develop evidence-based policies and programmes on HIV/AIDS and nutrition. The Assembly also passed a resolution calling upon WHO to work more closely with other UN agencies and donors to ensure a more coordinated support to countries in implementing their national HIV/AIDS responses.
The Assembly adopted a draft strategy for the prevention and control of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The Global Strategy provides a framework for countries to improve and accelerate their STI programme and ensure that it is well integrated and linked with other services for family planning, maternal health, and HIV prevention and care. The WHA reinforced the importance of comprehensive interventions, particularly for young people, which provide full information, life-skills, education and care for the prevention and management of STIs.
In addition, a new alliance to address the worldwide shortage of nurses, doctors, midwives and other health workers was launched on 25 May. The Global Health Workforce Alliance will seek practical approaches to improve working conditions, address issues of migration, and start a programme to train more health workers in countries where there are shortages. The Alliance will also serve as an international information hub and monitoring body.
WHA Member States adopted the ten-year framework outlining the strategic direction for health partners across the globe, in light of the world's health challenges. The "Global Health Agenda" identifies seven priority areas including building global health security, promoting universal coverage, addressing the determinants of health and strengthening health systems, among others. This work is a result of broad consultation with Member States and partners over the past two years and analyzes the critical gaps in improving people's health, in particular that of the poor.
The WHA also resolved to intensify action in order to achieve the aim of preventing avoidable blindness. The goal is to eliminate avoidable blindness by the year 2020 and to halt and reverse the projected doubling of avoidable visual impairment in the world. WHO will continue to work towards this goal in partnership with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, as part of "VISION 2020: The Right to Sight".
The Assembly referred to The Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health (DPAS) which was endorsed at the WHA in May 2004, the aim being to address unhealthy diet and physical inactivity, two of the major risk factors responsible for the growing burden of chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer. The biannual report to the WHA notes that while some progress has been made towards implementation of DPAS recommendations, the results are not universal. WHO will be developing additional recommendations to strengthen the implementation of the Strategy. The Assembly reported on the outcome of the first session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which was held from 6 to 7 February 2006, and confirmed the COP decision that the permanent secretariat, to be called the Convention Secretariat, will be established within WHO and located in Geneva.
More than 2200 people from WHO's 192 Member States, nongovernmental organizations and other observers attended the meeting which took place from 22-27 May.