Geneva/New York, May 31 – The World Health Assembly decided to meet in November to work out an international treaty that would provide the organization all means necessary to confront future global health crises. The assembly, which is the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, scheduled the fall meeting and adopted scores of resolutions before closing its week-long annual session in Geneva.
“We need a generational commitment that outlives budgetary cycles, election cycles and media cycles, that creates an overarching framework for connecting the political, financial and technical mechanisms needed for strengthening global health security,” WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Such a treaty would “foster improved sharing, trust and accountability, and provide the solid foundation on which to build other mechanisms for global health security,” Dr Tedros said.
The WHA adopted more than 30 resolutions and decisions on various health issues including diabetes, disabilities, ending violence against children, eye care, HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections, local production of medicines, malaria, neglected tropical diseases, noncommunicable diseases, nursing and midwifery, oral health, social determinants of health and strategic directions for the health and care workforce.
Dr Tedros reminded delegates in his closing address that the WHA session aimed at “Ending this pandemic, preventing the next: building together a healthier, safer and fairer world.”
“We’re very encouraged that cases and deaths are continuing to decline globally, but it would be a monumental error for any country to think the danger has passed,” Dr Tedros said. He urged governments to vaccinate at least 10 per cent of the population of all countries by the end of September, and at least 30 per cent by the end of 2021.
“One day – hopefully soon – the pandemic will be behind us but we will still face the same vulnerabilities that allowed a small outbreak to become a global pandemic,” he said.
“That’s why the one recommendation that I believe will do most to strengthen both WHO and global health security is the recommendation for a treaty on pandemic preparedness and response.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world must “respond resolutely and in solidarity” to stop the virus, bolster primary health systems and universal health coverage and prepare for the next global health emergency.
Guterres and WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus denounced the lopsided situation in which rich countries piled up vaccine supplies while poor countries cannot afford them. Both leaders paid tribute to the millions of frontline health workers with Guterres calling the “heroes of this pandemic.”
“Millions of healthcare professionals continue to put themselves in harm’s way every day. We owe them our deepest appreciation,” Guterres said.
“The ongoing vaccine crisis is a scandalous inequity that is perpetuating the pandemic,” Dr Tedros said in opening the WHA, which is WHO’s decision-making body. “More than 75 per cent of all vaccines have been administered in just 10 countries.”
“There is no diplomatic way to say it: a small group of countries that make and buy the majority of the world’s vaccines control the fate of the rest of the world.”
“The number of doses administered globally so far would have been enough to cover all health workers and older people, if they had been distributed equitably. We could have been in a much better situation.”
The WHA’s May 24-June 1 session was focusing on ending the pandemic that has killed over 3.6 million people and infected 167 million others globally in the past 18 months. The week-long virtual meeting will be attended by delegations from all member countries, observers and non-governmental organizations.
The WHA ‘s agenda included discussion of its 2022-2023 budget and a host of health issues from non-communicable diseases, health emergencies to malaria and poliomyelitis. But the focus will remain on the current global response to and on ending the Covid-19 pandemic and ways to prevent the next one.
A high-level meeting will take place on May 24 with the participation from heads of state and governments and special guests.
WHO said the global response is still at a crucial phase, marked by deep contrasts in recovery between rich and poor countries and vaccine inequality. WHO said over 75 per cent of all vaccine doses have been administered in only 10 countries while the lowest income countries have administered less than 0.5 per cent of global doses.
New international expert panel on the emergence and spread of zoonotic disease
WHO has announced that international organizations has agreed to form a new expert panel called One Health High-Level Expert Panel to “improve understanding of how diseases with the potential to trigger pandemics, emerge and spread.”
The expert panel will advise the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE); the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and the WHO “on the development of a long-term global plan of action to avert outbreaks of diseases like H5N1 avian influenza; MERS; Ebola; Zika, and, possibly, COVID-19. Three quarters of all emerging infectious diseases originate in animals.”
“Human health does not exist in a vacuum, and nor can our efforts to protect and promote it,” Dr Tedros said. “The close links between human, animal and environmental health demand close collaboration, communication and coordination between the relevant sectors. The High-Level Expert Panel is a much-needed initiative to transform One Health from a concept to concrete policies that safeguard the health of the world’s people.”
WHO said the expert panel will “operate under the One Health Approach, which recognizes the links between the health of people, animals, and the environment and highlights the need for specialists in multiple sectors to address any health threats and prevent disruption to agri-food systems.”
“Key first steps will include systematic analyses of scientific knowledge about the factors that lead to transmission of a disease from animal to human and vice versa; development of risk assessment and surveillance frameworks; identification of capacity gaps as well as agreement on good practices to prevent and prepare for zoonotic outbreaks.”
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