Summary
The World Health Organization has begun a new global commission with a mission to "find the causes behind the causes" of the world's sicknesses. The group will study ways in which the world can address health care inequities that leave those in poverty stricken parts of the world more vulnerable to many diseases than residents of more developed nations. Chilean president Ricardo Largos Escobar is one of the leaders of the commission.
Original source:
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/mar/20/yehey/opinion/20050320opi7.html
Details
The World Health Organization (WHO) is bringing together high-ranking experts on a new global Commission to trigger action on protecting the health of people who are poor and marginalized.
It will address the "causes behind the causes" of ill health.
In the following interview, Prof. Michael Marmot, chair of the Commission, discusses the social determinants that contribute to most of the global burden of disease and death, as well as the bulk of existing health inequities between and within countries.
The task of the Commission is to identify and support the application of interventions that will do the most to improve the social conditions that determine health.
It will review evidence on health inequities and knowledge on the best approaches and interventions on social determinants to improve health.
At the core of the Commission's work is the belief that a society that has organized its social conditions so that its population has better health is a better society.
Let's start at the beginning: if you are a 15-year-old boy in Lesotho, your chance of reaching the age of 60 is about 10 percent.
If you catch the metro train in downtown Washington, D.C., to suburbs in Maryland, life expectancy is 57 years at beginning of the journey.
It is about opportunities in life and control over one's life, in addition to social conditions that shape the physical environment one lives in.
Second, we know that where there are concentrations of poverty, with poor infrastructure, low levels of social cohesion, more than
health suffers.
Third, education is a route to better chances in life.
Poor families can't afford for their children to go to school, and those who do go don't learn well because malnutrition hinders their ability to learn and develop.
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Saturday, March 26, 2005
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