Global health, Our Section and APHA

Dear Colleagues, it is my pleasure to communicate with you as we are approaching the APHA Annual Meeting in Washington D.C., Nov. 3-7, 2007. Last year, our Section celebrated its 30^th anniversary. Perhaps it is suitable now to explore where we are and what we can do to advance our mission and goals.

The situation of Global Health - It seems that “the glass is half full and half empty.” The full half refers to the continuing growth of awareness about global health and welfare of international communities. The world community, represented by the United Nations and world leaders, adopted eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) in the year 2000. Four of these goals are direct health goals (reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and ensuring environmental sustainability). The other four goals are strong health determinants (eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, universal primary education, gender equity and women empowerment and developing global partnership). The Institute of Medicine (IoM) in 1997 stressed the fact that “America has a vital interest and direct stake in health of people around the world.” Global health was identified as one of eight essential content areas for education in public health  by the IoM in 2003 (The Future of Public Health in the 21st Century). Bill Gates, the co-founder of the largest charity organization in the world, recently explained why the future looks bright for the developing world.  by stating “Through better financing, more equipment and heightened awareness and commitment, the international community is now truly on its way towards boosting health in most corners of the world” (Newsweek, Oct. 1, 2007) This is not a wishful thinking but a factual statement by a person who is strongly supporting the development of a vaccine for malaria that kills 1-3 million a year. It is really promising to see that global development assistance reached about $100 billion during 2005 and is always on the rise.

The “empty part of the glass” is illustrated by the challenges we face as public health threats in the 21st century (WHO, World Health Report, 2007). These include:

·      Emerging and re-emerging diseases, where 40 new diseases that were unknown in 1970 appeared since then, with a rate of one disease per year; and 110 epidemics were reported to WHO in the last five years. We are living with the AIDS pandemic and we are guarding for the N5H1 influenza virus if it mutates.

·      Globalization, which we expected to improve the socioeconomic welfare of the developing world, seems to compound this situation through the fast and expanded movements of persons and goods. During 2006 there were 2.1 billion air passengers, and a much higher number used land transportation to cross borders.  In such environment, pandemics are likely to spread more than ever.

·      Environmental degradation, climate change and adverse impact on humans, biodiversity and agriculture.

·      Natural disasters that killed more than 500,000 persons and caused $750 billion in damage between 1990 and 1999.

·      Person-made disasters including armed conflicts, political unrest, terrorism and above all chemical, biological and nuclear threats. The number of refugees and internally displaced persons under the UN increased from 6 to 20.5 millions between 1980 and 2005. It is most unfortunate to realize that, in this civilized world of the 21^st century, there are still people loosing their lives because they have a different skin color, worship a different God, or even sometimes worship the same God but in a different church or temple or speak the same language yet with a different accent. The public health burden of such madness is excessive since the health authorities have to deal with victims, casualties, internally displaced persons and refugees, as well as facing the shifting of the scarce resources from health and social development to military expenditures and handling damage and population dislocations.

Therefore we need to operate between the “half full and half empty glass portions,” where our role as international public health professionals is more challenging and exciting than ever.

Our Section - Our Section, with more than 30 years of existence and with 1,600 members, is searching for all means of collaboration to serve its mission. Our position has three dimensions:

·      A diversity of public health disciplines within the Section, from epidemiology to health policy and management, MCH, population/family planning, HIV/AIDS, pharmaceuticals, and health promotion to mention a few.

·       Partnership with APHA sections, interest groups caucuses, and state affiliates.

·      Global affiliation with the 73 members of the World Federation of Public Health Associations that are gathering for a noble global cause from all over the world.

Within these dimensions, we can:

·      Serve the global community and improve the image of the United States in a world that is deteriorated more than ever before, and show the humanitarian face of America to the world.

·      Serve our nation by relating our success stories to our national health problems, where the number of the uninsured reached more than 47 million, with an increase of 2.2 million during 2006 alone, and the child completed immunization rate in some developing counties we serve is higher than some of our large cities.

·      Save more human lives and lower suffering from disease, disability, distress and discomfort all over the world including the United States, and help our world to achieve its determined development goals.

Given this unique situation, we are embarking on ambitious plans to multiply our efforts and refine our procedures to serve the global community.

Our standard committees are receiving more support from established and new members to maximize performance. These are essential for conducting the business as in any Section (membership, nominations, awards, annual program, advocacy & resolutions, and emerging health professionals).  Other Section functions were organized in two committees: Communication & Information, that includes the Web site, Newsletter, publications, and communications; and the Section Organization & Management Committee that involves meeting arrangements and management, documents, and fund raising.

To reach out, three new committees were established last year:

·       APHA global Health Connections, leading a consortium of sections with interest in global health within APHA.

·       External Global Health connections, reaching out to partners and international global health organizations such as PAHO, US-AID, Global Health Council, NGO’s and FBO’s.

·      Global Health Strategies, conducting research and developing a position paper on global health strategies.

Our Working Groups on Community-Based Primary Health Care and on Pharmaceuticals are proceeding with their excellent plans, and our Section formed a representative group within the APHA-wide Forum on trade and Health.

Our Web site has a new look that you can see yourself by visiting the site at www.apha.org/membergroups/sections/aphasections/intlhealth/.

Our scientific program for the annual meeting this year reached 53 oral and poster sessions.

We are pleased to have Dr Cristina Beato, the deputy director of PAHO, to present the keynote speech of our luncheon meeting during the APHA Annual Meeting.

In conclusion, the credit for such achievements totally goes to the group of dedicated leaders of the Section serving as chairs, co-chairs, and members of the committees and working groups.

I was honored to be elected for the second time after being the chair in 1992-94, to join this finest group of global health professionals. My congratulations go to the newly elected officers who will actively join forces with their dedicated colleagues. I hope that our Section is moving to satisfy your expectations. Your input will be well appreciated. All our meetings, including our bi-monthly teleconference meetings of the Section Council and leadership, welcome all members. Your active participation by joining a committee or a group in the Section can boost its success since our limit is the sky, and our ambitions certainly exceed our human resources.

--Samir N. Banoob, MD, DM, DPH, PhD, E-mail: sbanoob@aol.com