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STORY: UN / WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY WRAP
TRT: 1:51
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
DATELINE: 18, 21 MAY 2010, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND/ FILE
21 MAY 2010, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Pan right, World Health Organization Headquarters
2. Wide shot, hallways
3. Pan right, conference room
4. Med shot, audience
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO):
“This is a world in which some 43 million preschool children are obese or overweight. Think of what this means in terms of life long risk to their health. Think about the life long demands for care, at a time when most health systems are already overburdened, under funded and dangerously understaffed.”
6. Wide shot, audience applause
18 MAY 2010, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
7. Wide shot, audience
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia:
“People should not have to die simply because they are poor. I am here to join you in saying that people should not die because treatments common in the rest of the world are not available where they live.”
9. Pan left, audience
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia:
“Pandemics can spread without passports. Diseased don’t stop at national borers or checkpoints. Improving the health of our people is not only of fundamental importance to our nations and our citizens themselves; it also has crucial economic and geopolitical implications that reach far beyond the narrow interests of any one country.”
11. Wide shot, conference room
The 63rd World Health Assembly, which brought together Health Ministers and senior health officials from the World Health Organization's (WHO) Member States, ended its session today (21 May).
At the closing, Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General spoke about the rise of chronic non communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory disease.
She said that “some 43 million preschool children are obese or overweight” and reflected on the implications in terms of “life long risk to their health” and the strain on health care systems, “at a time when most health systems are already overburdened, under funded and dangerously understaffed.”
Earlier this week, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia outlined key health issues in Liberia after 14 years of war, in particular the impact of having only 50 doctors left in the country.
Ninety percent of the Liberian population live on less than $2 a day and therefore cannot afford to pay for health care.
She said that “people should not have to die simply because they are poor” and “treatments common in the rest of the world are not available where they live.”
She also pointed out that “pandemics can spread without passports” and “diseases don’t stop at national borers or checkpoints”, stressing that public health is not only of fundamental importance to nations and citizens themselves, but “also has crucial economic and geopolitical implications that reach far beyond the narrow interests of any one country.”
Throughout the week, delegates adopted resolutions on a variety of global health issues including: counterfeit medical products, viral hepatitis, monitoring of the achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), international recruitment of health personnel, and food safety.
More than 2800 delegates attended the Health Assembly this year.
On the sidelines of the 63rd World Health Assembly public health leaders unveiled a statue at WHO headquarters to commemorate 30 years of smallpox eradication.
