SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY TO FACE RISKS POSED BY SPREAD OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES
In Message on Occasion of World Health Day, Kofi Annan Says Such Risks Are Clear Example of Interdependence of Nations
Following is the message of Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the occasion of World Health Day, observed on 7 April:
On 7 April each year, the World Health Organization (WHO) celebrates World Health Day, which marks the occasion when, in 1948, the WHO constitution came into force. This year, the theme of World Health Day is "Emerging Infectious Diseases: Global Alert, Global Response".
Today, thanks to a world-wide effort led by the WHO and involving many nations, international organizations -- particularly those of the United Nations system -- non-governmental organizations and others, tremendous progress has been made in controlling some of the most terrible diseases facing humankind. Smallpox has been eradicated. Other diseases are targeted for eradication in the near future. Poliomyelitis and leprosy are being wiped out steadily. The United Nations and the WHO can be proud of these achievements.
But we must not be complacent. Infectious diseases are the leading cause of death in the world. New diseases with no known cure continue to emerge. In the past 20 years alone, about 30 new and highly infectious diseases have been identified, among them Ebola and HIV/AIDS. Old diseases that once seemed under control -- such as diphtheria and tuberculosis -- are making a deadly comeback, increasingly resistant to drugs that once cured us of their effects.
During the 1990s, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases have become a global public health concern. The globalization of trade, changes in ecology and climate, and mass movements of people, whether tourists, business travellers, migrants or refugees, are creating new opportunities for the spread of infections. Haphazard and uncontrolled urbanization in many countries forces people to live in unhygienic and overcrowded conditions. Persistent poverty exposes hundreds of millions of people to the threat of infection through lack of access to clean water and adequate sanitation. In many countries, social and economic crises, as well as civil strife, have led to the collapse of national health systems.
The WHO has unique expertise and experience in coordinating international surveillance and monitoring systems for infectious diseases, and in helping countries improve their capacities for detecting and responding to disease threats. The WHO, recognizing the scale and urgency of threats to public health, has taken effective steps to counter them, ranging from improving the availability of vaccines and drugs to filling gaps in national and international surveillance and monitoring networks.
On World Health Day 1997, the WHO is sounding a global alert and calling for a global response to the challenge of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Infectious diseases affect everyone. There can be no clearer example of the interdependence of nations than the risks posed by the spread of infectious diseases. We need to show international solidarity by meeting this challenge with united, coordinated action.
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