Question 3:
Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, in her address to the Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly in May 2013, said:
“Today’s health challenges are vastly different from those faced in the year 2000, when the Millennium Declaration was signed. Efforts to safeguard public health face opposition from a different set of extremely powerful forces.
Many of the risk factors for non-communicable diseases are amplified by the products and practices of large and economically powerful forces. Market power readily translates into political power.
This power seldom impeded efforts to reach the MDGs.
No PR firms were hired to portray the delivery of medicines for HIV and TB as interference with personal liberties by the Nanny State, with WHO depicted as the Mother Superior of all Nannies. No lawsuits were filed to stop countries from reducing the risks for child mortality.
No research was funded by industry to cast doubt on the causes of maternal mortality. Mosquitoes do not have front groups, and mosquitoes do not have lobbies.
But the industries that contribute to the rise of NCDs do. When public health policies cross purposes with vested economic interests, we will face opposition, well-orchestrated opposition, and very well-funded opposition.”
Who do you think these ‘industries that contribute to the rise of NCDs” are? Select one of these industries and outline what problems they pose for WHO.
Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, in her address to the Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly in May 2013, said:
“Today’s health challenges are vastly different from those faced in the year 2000, when the Millennium Declaration was signed. Efforts to safeguard public health face opposition from a different set of extremely powerful forces.
Many of the risk factors for non-communicable diseases are amplified by the products and practices of large and economically powerful forces. Market power readily translates into political power.
This power seldom impeded efforts to reach the MDGs.
No PR firms were hired to portray the delivery of medicines for HIV and TB as interference with personal liberties by the Nanny State, with WHO depicted as the Mother Superior of all Nannies. No lawsuits were filed to stop countries from reducing the risks for child mortality.
No research was funded by industry to cast doubt on the causes of maternal mortality. Mosquitoes do not have front groups, and mosquitoes do not have lobbies.
But the industries that contribute to the rise of NCDs do. When public health policies cross purposes with vested economic interests, we will face opposition, well-orchestrated opposition, and very well-funded opposition.”
Who do you think these ‘industries that contribute to the rise of NCDs” are? Select one of these industries and outline what problems they pose for WHO.
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