Multi-sectoral partnerships and conflicts of interest are a resounding theme of this year’s World Health Assembly, as the World Health Organization (WHO) struggles to compete to raise funds with NGOs and other multilateral organizations in the midst of a global financial crisis.  The multi-sectoral perspective strays from the conventional “top-down, finger-wagging UN” and is not a natural or comfortable one for health ministries to adopt. It begs the question: what place do partisan…

This session focused on implications for individuals, health systems, and society as a whole in regards to the rapidly aging population. It is well known that as people age, they not only develop co-morbidities, but multiple morbidities. Thus, it is essential to consider how to provide increased care to the aging population and keep members in the workforce as long as possible. The panelists proposed a three-prong approach to sustaining the lives of the elderly. These include: creating…

After an entire week of attending plenaries, committee meetings, side events, and creepily eavesdropping on other people’s conversations at the coffee bar, I’ve come to one conclusion.  The World Health Assembly is one huge ball.  Countries are constantly waltzing around each other and bowing to each other, but never really getting to the meat of things.

This week, I had the chance to attend the Committee A meetings on WHO reform.  Each country was given the opportunity to make a…

To coincide with the YP Day of Action the May 3T was shifted for one week and was held on the 4^th Thursday. As always the meeting was filled with 26 young and energetic YP’s around the Dhaka city. Three new members - Dr. Jakir Hossain Bhuiyan Masud, Mehedi Hassan Fuad and Tashdidaa Shamsi – joined this meeting for the first time. At the beginning of the 4^th 3T, Shusmita Khan welcomed everyone and gave an update on the global events including the 65^th World…

The first week of our practicum trip to Geneva has flown by in a flurry of activity - coffee breaks with United Nations officials in the bustling Serpentine lounge, frantic note-writing in plenary sessions, delegate speeches from all over the world (as I listen in real-time translation through those highly-coveted UN headphones), and a plethora of top secret things that I simply can't recount in such a public forum. I can speak for myself when I say that after five days of hobnobbing with…

Our morning meeting and interview with Alison Cox, strategic planning consultant for the NCD Alliance, was inspiring and quite thought-provoking. She told us a little about how the NCD Alliance began and what its top priorities are for global health advocacy. As we have seen and heard already at the World Health Assembly all this week, non-communicable diseases have become a leading global health epidemic and they need to be treated as top priorities much like HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB…

At a meeting examining the role national medical associations can take in advancing health equity through social determinants of health, Christopher Pleyer, president of the International Federation of Medical Student’s Association (IFMSA), described how young health professionals can play an active role in addressing the social determinants of health.  Within this, he laid out IFMSA five approaches to changing social determinants of health that are as follows:

1. Committing to act…

For most of us that cannot attend the 65th WHA in Geneva.  This is a link to the transcript read by the International Federation of Medical Students' Association (IFMSA) in Committee A on May 22, 2012.

IFMSA%20intervention%20WHA%2065%2013.1%20%281%29.pdf

According to the WHO, tobacco related diseases cost 57000 lives and 382000 people become paralyses a year in Bangladesh. Scientists have proven that, tobacco alone causes tuberculosis, cardiac diseases, cancer, stroke, diabetes and other non communicable diseases. The WHO at another research found that, tobacco products…

            Good communication is necessary to providing good health. This goes far beyond patient-provider communication or one’s ability to read a prescription label. Here at the World Health Assembly this week, I have watched delegates from over 190 nations interact to improve the health of their people. Members chat in the halls, speak before committees and join panel discussions on an array of topics plaguing countries around the globe. As everyone tunes in to the discussion in one of 6…

     We have freshly come from a fascinating panel on the social determinants of health! What we in public health mean by "social determinants" includes environmental and social factors which frame the individual's health behaviors, and represent either a constraining or conducive effect on health maintenance. Social determinants of health, contrary perhaps to popular belief, in fact represent the major contributor to the health inequities seen across populations and around the…

Dear YP and NCD Action Networks,

Today, as part of the YP Day of Action, we are pleased to announce our first ever Call for Leadership. Beginning today through June 8th we invite you to nominate members of our networks (YP-CDN and NCD Action) for various leadership positions. The positions will be voted on by the current Global Steering Committee and will begin September 1st. All positions are available, voluntary, and carry one year terms. Many of the current leaders and members of…

               Over the past couple of days, my classmates and I have had the honor of meeting a number of leaders within the health field who have taken their time to share their knowledge, background, suggestions and concerns. For example, we had the pleasure of speaking and attending an event with Mr. Mike Splaine of the Alzheimer’s Disease International as well as the VP of Global Strategies of the American Heart Association. Both of these individuals were very supportive of the goals of…

Over the course of two days at the 65^th World Health Assembly (WHA), I was surprised and impressed with all the representatives from the different African countries attending the assembly. They were so passionate to discuss the changes in their countries’ health care system.  This was clearly…

When you think of major causes of deaths from NCDs you immediately picture tabacco, alcohol and diet.  Surprisingly, one major cause of NCDs for women and children in low-income countries is household air pollution.  Half of the worlds population use cookstoves that burn biomass or coal and women and children are exposed daily to its pollutants and effects.



Each year 2 million people will die from conditions caused by cookstove smoke and in 2004 36,000 people were…

I attended a meeting on opioid prevention, sponsored by the United States. At this meeting I learned that 9% of people under the age of twelve use illicit drugs in the United States, while 2% misuse prescription drugs. The meeting focused on prevention methods for managing opioid use, specifically in regards to chronic disease pain. A delegate from the United States dictated that they are concentrating on four main areas of prevention, which include empowering parents, training providers, as…

Dr. Chan, Director General of WHO, came out strong at the "Building global solidarity to counter the tobacco industry's attacks" event, with a rally cry to fight tobacco intimidation.  She raised her voice to build solidarity to support countries where the tobacco industry is interfering with moving policies forward to control tobacco advertising and usage.  Some strategies of the tobacco industry include the traditional ones: youth marketing, targeting women, political control and…

NCDs like heart disease, cancer and diabetes are growing threats - even in developing countries. Harvard med student and YPCDN founder (the parent to NCD Action Network) Sandeep Kishore says its time to revoke the false dichotomy between medicine and public health. Doctors should learn more about the 'causes of the causes', the social determinants of health.…

(USC Team: Too Classy for Color)

Hello to all and welcome to what I consider to be the World Cup of World Health Assemblies. Although the expected outcome of the new Director General is a little more known than that of your standard world cup, the aligning of a WHA and leadership…

Non-communicable diseases have recently become one of the most pressing issues on the global public health agenda. But what I continue to hear here at the World Health Assembly is poorer countries and those with greater socio-economic inequalities within their societies need to change their mindset about how to tackle problems such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. According to Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization, “Money alone does not buy better health.…