wfn.org | WCC FEATURE: Amid influenza 'A' fears, health experts discuss longer term strategies

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World Council of Churches - Feature

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For immediate release - 20/05/2009 14:51:46

HEALTH NOT A COMMODITY BUT A RIGHT, ALSO IN TIMES OF INFLUENZA

>A

>By Juan Michel (*)

What do you think about when you hear the word "health"? A
doctor with a stethoscope, lab testing tubes, coloured pills?
Wrong answer, grassroots health activists say. You should be
thinking first of clean drinking water, nutritious food, a safe
work environment and essential health care made accessible at the
community level. Yes, even in times of influenza A. 

A large spectrum of grassroots health activists – nearly one
hundred sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC) –
gathered in Geneva in mid May to press these issues within the
global public health discussion. From 18 to 22 May they are
participating in the 62nd World Health Assembly, the annual
gathering of the World Health Organization (WHO). 

In addition to preparedness for the possible influenza A (H1N1)
pandemic, the WHO assembly is discussing two resolutions that are
crucial in its longer term strategy to revitalize primary health
care and to address the social determinants of health. A timely
approach in a world where diarrhoea kills nearly two million
children every year. 

Social determinants of health are factors with high impact on
public health, namely: access to clean drinking water and
adequate sanitation, adequate supply of safe food, nutrition and
housing, healthy occupational and environmental conditions and
access to health-related education and information. They are
social because they are largely shaped by the distribution of
money, power and resources in the society. 

Primary health care, according to the WHO's definition, "is
essential health care made universally accessible to individuals
and families in the community by means acceptable to them,
through their full participation and at a cost that the community
and country can afford". Focused on the main health problems in a
given community, primary health care is aimed to tackle
unacceptable inequalities. 

As counterintuitive as it may seem, in order to achieve better
health for more people the key is to "de-medicalize" the approach
to health, says Oscar Feo Istúriz, executive secretary of the
Andean Health Organization, a South American intergovernmental
body. 

"We need to bridge the gap between the discursive recognition of
the social determinants of health and a practice centred on the
axis hospital – doctor – disease", he adds. "Today, our
ministries of health are actually ministries of illness."

>:: Free health for all

Feo Istúriz was among the participants at a civil society forum
held ahead of the WHO assembly by the People's Health Movement,
the WCC and the Third World Network among other organizations. In
addition to civil society organizations, the forum gathered
representatives from delegations of member states as well as the
WHO secretariat. 

Participants at the forum have asked the WHO member states to
"privilege the interests of people and public health, over
commercial and corporate interests". They stressed the need to
"ensure health care is free at the point of access for all, with
a focus on equitable access for the poor". In order to achieve
that, "at least 5% of national income and 15% of national budgets
[should be dedicated] to health services", they stated. 

Emphasizing the "central role and responsibility of governments
in ensuring universal access to health", the forum participants
stressed the need to "increase [the] capacities of the public
sector in health care provision, health research and health
related industry […] and strengthen national public health
programs". 

They demanded the "empowerment of local populations to
participate in the building of health care structures that are
accountable to the needs of communities". Grassroots and
community organizations, indigenous groups and faith-based
organizations are "building blocks in the design and
implementation of primary health care". 

>:: Pandemics highlight inequalities

"Implementing primary health care and addressing the social
determinants of health is even more important when the world
faces potential pandemic diseases like influenza A", says Manoj
Kurian, WCC programme executive for health and healing. 

"The health inequities that these approaches aim to tackle are
more evident when rich countries stockpile antiviral treatments
and buy in advance influenza A vaccines that have yet to be
developed and produced" adds Kurian. 

According to him, "in many poor countries churches and other
faith based organizations are so busy and stretched providing
health services, that it is not easy for them to ask the
difficult questions. They too need to rediscover primary health
care not just as a technical tool to be applied to health
systems, but as a radically different approach to promoting and
preserving health." 

"Civil society organizations play a crucial role in revitalizing
the debate on primary health care and on social determinants of
health", Eugenio Villar, coordinator of the WHO department on
Ethics, Equity, Trade and Human Rights, said at the civil society
forum. 

"On the one hand they convey the concerns of the voiceless,
which need to be heard at the global level; on the other hand
they bring back to their contexts the global debates, thus
playing a protagonist role through political action in the
processes of health reform." 

After a period in which the agenda of health sector reforms
pushed by international financial institutions made of health "a
commodity rather than a right", the WHO is reaffirming the
crucial role of primary health care "today more than ever", said
Villar. 

>[860 words]

(*) Juan Michel is the WCC media relations officer.

Call from the civil society forum on Equity, Justice and
Health:
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=6831

>WCC work on health and healing:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3129

62nd World Health Assembly:

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/2009/wha62/en/index.html

Opinions expressed in WCC Features do not necessarily reflect
WCC policy. This material may be reprinted freely, providing
credit is given to the author. 

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363 media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.