PUBLIC HEALTH Public health Global health improvement and WHO: shaping the future

• Main Author: Lee Jong-wook
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.200.1346; http://www.who.int/entity/whr/2003/media_centre/en/lee_lancet_article.pdf

A world torn by gross health inequalities is in serious trouble. The global health community can do much to reduce suffering and death among vulnerable groups. WHO is changing its way of working, alongside member states and financial and technical partners, to reach key national health goals and strengthen equity. The most urgent objectives include the health-related Millennium Development Goals, the 3 by 5 target in HIV/AIDS treatment (to provide 3 million people in developing regions with access to antiretroviral treatment by the end of 2005), and addressing the growing epidemics of non-communicable diseases. The key to achieving these objectives is strengthening of health systems guided by the values of Health For All. Inequalities scar the world’s health landscape. The newly released World health report 2003—shaping the future reveals that a baby born today in Afghanistan is 75 times more likely to die before age 5 years than a child born in Iceland or Singapore. Life expectancy at birth in Sierra Leone is less than half that in Japan. 1 The antiretroviral drugs routinely prescribed to people with HIV/AIDS in wealthy countries have greatly extended and improved life for