Aditi Das has been very busy on our behalf. Not only did she go to the Conflict and Catastrophe Forum’s medicine overseas event for us last week but yesterday, she went to a very high profile conference at the Royal College of Physicians on Global Health: Current Issues, Future Trends and Foreign Policy  and reports back for us here-RhonaYesterday I attended a conference held by the Royal College of Physicians, London entitled, Global Health: Current Issues, Future Trends and Foreign Policy’. I entered with high expectations which were thankfully not in the least bit dashed. This was an excellent yet tiring day that left me feeling enthused, educated and inspired.

For those of you who have not visited the Royal College of Physicians in London, it is truly a remarkable building.  As you enter, the high walls are laden with portraits of eminent doctors who have helped to shape the health care system that we are now part of today. Moreover, the library collections date back to 1518; an indicator of the rich historical underpinnings of this institution. Therefore, that the College decided to host a conference on Global Health is testament to the importance of this issue. This move also suggests that contemporary physicians are now starting to regard Global Health as an utmost priority rather than just a popular catch-phase.

This was a timely conference in many ways. Firstly, it drew from the recent reports by Lord Crisp and Sir Liam Donaldson entitled “Global Health Partnerships” and “Health is global: proposals for a government-wide strategy” respectively. Both of these documents expressed the urgent requirement of the UK government and the National Health System in the UK to prioritise global health and work to improve the health systems of other countries. In particular, they emphasised the need to form global health partnerships between our health system and that of developing countries. Secondly, the talks centred around a number of health issues which have recently captured international attention such as climate change, health tourism, the global epidemic of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease and health security to name a few. Finally, the talks precede a number of major global health landmarks that are to be expected later this year, notably the 30^th Anniversary of the Alma Ata declaration and the 60^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Consequently, over a dozen eminent physicians and policy makers joined together today to speak about this pressing issue.

The speakers commenced by providing recent global updates on chronic and communicable disease. Notably, Professor Sir Roy Anderson, Chair in infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College London, spoke of the key public health challenges that the world faces today. Of these issues, the most important are pandemic influenza, HIV, Climate change and food security. Interestingly, the Lancet has just published an editorial outlining the significant threat of food security which emphasises that our increasing reliance on biofuels is a great danger. Professor Anderson added that in order to tackle global food insecurity, human beings are going to have to significantly alter their behaviours in coming years; an initiative in which health workers must play a substantial role. Following this, Professor Peter Borriello, director of the centre of infections for the Health Protection Agency, gave a fascinating update on the global surveillance of infectious diseases. Particularly, he highlighted the need for our globalised society to collaborate in order to survey, report and respond to an outbreak of disease. In this way, we can prevent millions of deaths worldwide from communicable disease. Subsequent speakers identified further challenges to our collective global health including HIV, Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis and the global epidemic of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease. Evidently, infectious disease is still a veritable hurdle to improving global health. However, the underlying issue of each of these talks was that such hurdles can be overcome with significant collaboration, accountability and dedication from the international community. 

 Personally, the highlight of my day was the discussion of health in the context of globalisation and climate change. With globalisation, we have a greater propensity to travel. And with this travel comes great consequences. Travel disseminates disease and harms the globe. As Dr Neira, Director for Public health and environment for the WHO acknowledged, climate change is a significant global health challenge. It risks spreading infections, exacerbating food crises and worldwide water shortages in the most vulnerable and poverty stricken communities. Further, it is forecasted to have a catastrophic effect on mental health and mortality rates….

…At this point I will pause for a second. I know that when the words ‘climate’ and ‘change’ come together, eyes tend to glaze over. However, what the conference emphasised was that whilst this issue may be a significant challenge it can be tackled. Simply put, if enough people walked or used their bicycles rather than their cars, 800 000 deaths can be avoided per annum from air pollution. Further, 1.9 million deaths can be avoided from physical inactivity and 1.2 million from road traffic accidents. While this may sound like old news, it is a simple solution to a grave problem.

Finally, staying on the topic of globalisation, much debate was pivoted around the emergence of trade in health services and the migration of health workers. In relation to the former issue, Professor Atun, Imperial College London, provided an insight into health tourism, or what is commonly termed a ‘new paradigm in health care provision’. More and more patients are now choosing to access health care abroad in countries such as India, Thailand and Singapore. These countries offer low cost health care, skilled workers and tie in holidays. But Professor Atun noted that this is a heavily under researched issue. While patients continue to travel, there is no documentation on the effects of this travel on the source, and particularly the destination countries. In India, for example, this form of travel threatens to drive up prices of medical services and burden the health system such that local patients can no longer receive treatments. Evidently, trade in health services is an important global health issue that needs more attention.

Finally, significant debate was focussed on the worldwide health worker crisis. A panel of experts spoke at length of how developing countries can address this problem and adopt strategies to retain their vital health workers. Notably, for this to happen, there needs to be effective coordination between developing countries and developed countries.

So… what was the inherent message of the day? And the answer is: collaboration, collaboration, collaboration. While to some, this may seem impossible, today’s talks revealed that this is far from true. More specifically, the last speaker of the day, Dr Douglas Lungu Director of the Daeyang Luke Hospital in Malawi, exemplified that countries are now more open to collaboration for global health than ever before. As a health professional in Malawi, Dr Lungu was accustomed to dealing with international donors who funded medical programs in his hospital for years. Donors tended to dictate the terms of how their programs were to be coordinated and left no room for negotiation from Malawian health professionals. Thus, in the past, many international programs run by foreign bodies in Malawi have been ineffective. However, things are changing. Thanks to the Crisp report, there is recognition that developing countries should dictate the conditions on which programs are run. Therefore, it seems that global health is finally heading in the right direction; one in which countries take responsibility for themselves but are backed by the collaboration of their global counterparts. Aditi Das: diti_d@hotmail.com

    

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 6:48 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.