SECOND SEMINAR ON GLOBAL HEALTH
Sudakoff Conference Center, New College, October 17, 2002, 200pm-5:00pm (1:45-2pm registration)
TWO PARAMOUNT ISSUES CONFRONTING THE GLOBAL WORLD ARE: BIOTERRORISM AND POPULATON GROWTH
You are invited to participate in the SECOND SEMINAR on GLOBAL HEALTH presented by the UNITED NATION ASSOCIATION of SARASOT A and MANATEE COUNTIES to explore the two global issues of BIOTERRORISM and POPULATION GROWTH. The Seminar will provide a platform to engage the public in an informational presentation of the roles played by city, county, state, United States, the United Nations, and individual sectors within the confines of these two separate but intertwined issues of today.
We are most fortunate to have Mark Magenheim, MD, MPH , Medical Executive Director, Sarasota County Health Department as Moderator, and presentor of "Bioterrorism, Fl. Other presentors will be Jacqueline Cattani, PhD , MPH, Director of the Center for Biological Defense, University of South Florida, College of Public Health, Tampa, Fl presenting "Global Bioterrorism"; Christine Cauffield, PsyD, President and CEO, Coastal Behavioral Healthcare Inc., Sarasota Fl, presenting, "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder", and Werner Fornos, President, Population Institute, Washington DC, presenting "Population Growth and its Impact on Global Health ".
Each brings a vast accumulation of academic, professional and world-wide experience within their individual fields to the SECOND GLOBAL HEALTH INITIATIVE. We are most fortunate.
The Seminar will be held on OCTOBER 17, 2002, at the SUDAKOFF CONFERENCE CENTER, University of South Florida New College, Sarasota, from l:00pm to 5:00pm (1:00-1:45pm registration). Accreditation points for specific professions are authorized.
FIRST SEMINAR ON GLOBAL HEALTH
Jack Gelbart Auditorium, Selby Library, Sarasota, Florida - February 27, 2002
Moderator:
.
Mark Magenheim, MD, Medical Executive Director, Sarasota County Health Department and Chairman of Advisory Committee for AIDS at US Center for Disease Control
Speakers:
Bertild Lindblad, Deputy Director, United Nations AIDS Office, New York: “AIDS Pandemic and the Role of the United Nations”
Washington Hill, MD, Chairman of Department of Maternal and Child Care, Sarasota Memorial Hospital: “Global Maternal-Child Health”
Duane Dowell, MD, Medical Director, Hospital Albert Schweitzer, Haiti and associate of Dr. Paul Farmer in “Partners in Health” “Global Tuberculosis and Malaria”
The Seminar was organized and presented by a committee of the Sarasota-Manatee Chapter of the United Nations Association of the USA, chaired by Leita Kaldi, as part of a national Global Health Initiative. The large audience consisted of both health professionals and members of the general public.
Moderator Dr. Magenheim set the stage by noting that, despite more potent and effective drugs, infectious diseases have risen between 1990 and 2000 in the US from the 5th to the 3rd leading cause of death. HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis led the increase, with infection rates particularly severe among the prison population. He noted even greater severity in the less developed countries and the ex-Soviet Union.
Mr. Lindblad, speaking on AIDS, described the function of his office as coordinating the AIDS activities of various international organizations and United Nations bodies, as well as international activities of the US Center for Disease Control. He stated that AIDS is the most devastating epidemic in human history, and that we are still in the early phases of the epidemic. Since it was first defined in 1981, AIDS has expanded from a medical problem to become a global development crisis. 40 million people now have HIV/AIDS, with 5 million new cases and 3 million deaths in 2001. In addition to the 40 million now infected, 20 million more have already died.
The AIDS epidemic is most serious in sub-Saharan Africa, where 28.1 million people are currently infected, 8.8 % of the total population. Seven countries have more than 20 % of their populations infected, peaking with 36 % infected in Botswana. 6.1 million are infected in South and Southeast Asia, 1.4 million in Latin America, 1 million in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 1 million in East Asia and the Pacific, 940,000 in the US and Canada, 500,000 in Western Europe, and 420,000 in the Caribbean. South Africa and India, with 3 million each, have the largest numbers in a single country.
Most of the HIV/AIDS cases in Eastern Europe and the ex-USSR (where they are rapidly increasing) are drug needle-related, but in Africa, the virus is primarily transmitted by heterosexual contact. There is an 80 % chance that any current teen-aged boy in the worst-infected African countries will eventually die of AIDS. Though still small in relation to its huge population, HIV/AIDS is growing rapidly in China, with tainted blood a major cause.
There is still no cure for AIDS, but expensive anti-retroviral drugs can delay its onset, slow its spread in the body, or treat accompanying infections such as pneumonia and fungus. However, ten percent of the HIV infections in the US are already resistant to the major anti-retroviral drugs. International and national planning and programs are proceeding, with prevention through use of condoms and changed sexual and drug needle practices are working in some countries, such as Thailand where new cases are down from 140,000 to only 30,000 in 2001.
More money is needed. Only $2.6 billion was spent last year on AIDS in less developed countries, with $ 1.7 billion of that coming from international donors and the UN. The need in LDC’s now is $7 to $10 billion annually.
Dr. Hill, began his remarks on maternal and child health by noting that 98 % of maternal mortality occurs in LDCs, which lag far behind the developed countries in having mad pregnancy and childbirth safe. In some countries, the cause of death of one in ten women is complications or infection during pregnancy or childbirth, while in industrialized countries it is one in 4,000. Globally, that amounts to 500,000 deaths a year, most acutely in sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, only 53 % of women give birth with a health professional (doctor, nurse, or midwife) in attendance and only 40 % give birth in a hospital.
In Florida there are 10.2 deaths per 100,000 white women during or related to childbirth, 22 per 100,000 non-white women. In the US 12, Canada 6, Sweden 7, England 9, France 15, Germany 22, China 95, South Africa 230, India 590, Kenya 650, Haiti 1,000, Afghanistan 1700. And fro every one who dies, 30 more survive with a serious injury. China, Cuba, and Sri Lanka have greatly reduced maternal death at rather low cost. What is needed is not national wealth, but national commitment.
What is needs to be done to improve the situation:
- Ensure a health professional in attendance.
Dr. Dowell spoke primarily on tuberculosis, a disease with 8 million new cases annually, with 3 million deaths. 95 % of these tuberculosis cases are in the LDCs. Tuberculosis is also the leading killer of HIV-infected people. It is also the leading cause of maternal mortality. One third of the world’s population is or has been infected with the TB bacillus (would show a positive skin test), but most are unlikely to develop a symptomatic infection. The best ways to keep a symptomatic infection from development are to ensure ample fresh air and ultraviolet irradiation. Then, if an infectious symptoms develop, the patient needs effective treatment with powerful drug combinations.
In 1882, one in seven people in the US and Europe died of TB. Some drugs have been available since early in the last century, but the most effective combinations have been available only since the 1950s. Recent increases in TB in developed countries is largely AIDS-related. It may be both AIDS and malaria-related in LDCs, but often develops separately from either. The treatment regimen lasts 6 to 8 months, and a major problem is that people stop taking their medicine when they begin to feel better. Two to four drugs in combination are generally used, with the regimen still being refined.
Public-private partnerships between the Stop TB Initiative of the WHO, pharmaceutical companies, and philanthropists like Bill and Melinda Gates, George Soros and Ted Turner are making progress. BCG vaccine is given in many countries where there is a high incidence of non-pulmonary types of TB.
In his summation, moderator Dr. Magenheim drew attention, among other things, to the need to study the ecology of diseases an take counter-active measures. For example, overpopulation in West and Central Africa caused the cutting of forests, which forced forest animals in close contact with humans, who made them an increasing part of their diet, which allowed a benign monkey virus to mutate into the human plague of HIV/AIDS. Other mutations to resistant drugs are being caused by the widespread use of antibiotics.
The Seminar concluded with a reception for the speakers and other participants.
Wade Matthews
Please contact the Webmaster , if you have any comments.
- Provide client-centered family planning services. Every minute worldwide 190 women face an unplanned pregnancy. Half of all pregnancies are unplanned, and half of those are unwanted. Women need to be able to choose whether they want to be pregnant.
Rapporteur
Links to other sites on the Web
United Nations
UNA-USA
UNDP
UNESCO
WHO
FAO