[afro-nets] UN to Fight Social Causes Behind Ill-Health

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

UN HEALTH AGENCY LAUNCHES NEW PANEL TO FIGHT SOCIAL CAUSES BE-
HIND ILL-HEALTH
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New York, Mar 18 2005 10:00 AM

The United Nations health agency today
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr13/en/index.html
launched a new global Commission to tackle the social "causes
behind the causes of" ill-health, such as poverty, social exclu-
sion, inappropriate housing, shortcomings in safeguarding early
childhood development, unsafe employment conditions and lack of
quality health systems.

"Social standing plays a big part in whether people will live to
be 40 or 80, whether they will be treated for a curable disease,
and whether their children survive their fifth birthday," World
Health Organization Director-General Lee Jong-wook at the offi-
cial launch in Santiago, Chile, with Chilean President Ricardo
Lagos Escobar.

"People should not die young because they are poor. This commis-
sion will assist countries, no matter how rich or poor, to im-
plement strategies that will help people who are poor and mar-
ginalized live longer, healthier lives. This effectively places
the needs of the disadvantaged first on the health agenda in the
21st century," he added.

The 17-member Commission includes leading global experts on
health, education, housing and economics. Commissioners will
work to recommend the best ways to address health's social de-
terminants and safeguard the health of poor and marginalized
populations, and to break the "poverty equals ill-health" cycle.

The core of the Commission's work will be to identify, evaluate,
adapt and distribute effective strategies to address social de-
terminants, with the aim of supporting governments to scale-up
action. It will operate for three years.

"A great share of health problems is attributable to social con-
ditions, and this is why the poor carry the greatest burden of
ill-health," Commission Chair Michael Marmot, Director of the
International Centre for Health and Society at University Col-
lege London, said. "On a global scale, we must ensure that
health policies move beyond exclusively disease-focused solu-
tions and include the social environment."

"We will arm policymakers with the best evidence to ensure that
poverty does not sentence a person to a shorter, unhealthy
life," he added.

Social determinants are a significant reason behind the world's
vast difference in average life expectancy, ranging from 34
years in Sierra Leone, the lowest in the world, to 81.9 in Ja-
pan, the highest. Social determinants also account for the ma-
jority of health inequities within countries. In Indonesia, un-
der-five mortality is nearly four times higher in the poorest
fifth of the population than in the richest fifth. In England
and Wales, the latest data shows a 7.4-year gap in life expec-
tancy between men in professional occupations and men in un-
skilled manual occupations.