1st World Health Summit: Working for a Universal Human Right
International representatives from politics, science, industry and civil society advised from 14. until October 18 in Berlin on urgent global health issues. The right of every person to the maximum attainable level of physical and mental health is one of the central obligations of state policy. The global implementation of this agreement, which the member states of the World Health Organization entered into at their historic conference in Alma-Ata in 1978 and which was intended for the turn of the millennium, is far from being achieved. Appropriate and fair access to health care and prevention measures remains wishful thinking for most of the world's population. Despite an unprecedented one Medical advances in the fields of molecular biology and imaging diagnostics over the past few decades mean that millions of people die every year from diseases that are easily treatable. In addition, there are uncontrollable epidemics such as HIV / AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as well as dramatic increase in chronic diseases (obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular system, cancer) also in developing and emerging countries. And everything indicates that climate change is the basis of life for the People particularly in Africa, Latin America and Asia are threatened by droughts, floods and currents. Even today, two billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, so it is not surprising that the social exclusion associated with denied health access has not only physical, but also psychological and psychosocial effects worldwide. And the western industrialized countries? They struggle with the economic and social consequences of demographic change towards an aging society. The tense financial situation for the national health care systems is exacerbated by the aftermath of the global financial and economic crisis. All in all: seemingly endless catalog of challenges that cannot be resolved either nationally or with old ways of thinking and structures. The CharitUniversittsmedizin Berlin and the Universit Paris Descartes have therefore set themselves the goal of initiating global debate on how people's health can be permanently protected, restored and preserved with the first World Health Summit entitled Evolution of Medicine. The challenge of the 21st century will be to define clear goals and responsibilities as well as to secure investments for the development and use of new technologies and medical innovations, explains Prof. Dr. med. Detlev Ganten, President of the World Health Summit.In order to achieve this goal, all actors have to pull together. The Berlin summit is intended to provide the necessary starting impetus for globally coordinated action. Active participants in Berlin are therefore expected: national and international health and research ministers, state secretaries, representatives of the World Health Organization and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Nobel Prize winners, presidents of renowned scientific institutions and board members of the pharmaceutical industry and medical technology. The 2009 Summit will be the first in series of annual summits and is under the patronage of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. As the media partner of this event, Deutsches rzteblatt would like to introduce the topic with various articles on global health issues and developments on the following special pages. Dr. med. Vera Zylka-Menhorn @More information on the Internet: www.worldhealthsummit.org
5
0
Do you want a website?