WHO chief calls for affordable medicines for poor countries
GENEVA, 5 November: The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that poor countries urgently need effective and affordable medicines to deal with health threats such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.
– I am aware that the price of medicines and other products can be prohibitive, effectively blocking access to care, said WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan.
– Many diseases of the poor do not have good therapeutic drugs, or the prices are out of reach, she told a meeting of the WHO’s Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property.
Chan said HIV/AIDS and chronic diseases, which now impose their greatest burden on low- and middle-income countries, makes the need for effective and affordable medicines all the more critical.
– When people need to take medicines for a lifetime, the costs increase enormously for households, health services, and government budgets, noted she.
The WHO head stressed that she was fully committed to equitable access to medicines.
She said the objective of the UN health agency was to reduce poverty through better health, so the world cannot “allow the costs of health care to drive impoverished households even deeper into poverty.”
The Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property was established last year with an aim to promote better access to medicines and other healthcare products for patients in poor countries.
The week-long meeting of the working group is meant to prepare a global strategy and plan of action, which is scheduled to be presented to the World health Assembly in May 2008.
Kilder: Xinhua General News Service og The Push Journal
