scholarly journals The Juscelino Kubitschek government and the Brazilian Malaria Control and Eradication Working Group: collaboration and conflicts in Brazilian and international health agenda, 1958-1961

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renato da Silva ◽  
Carlos Henrique Assunção Paiva

Malaria, a disease which was under control in the beginning of Juscelino Kubitschek government, became the most important endemic disease in 1958, when Brazil made a commitment with the World Health Organization to convert its control programs into eradication programs. For this purpose a Malaria Control and Eradication Group was set up under the leadership of the malaria specialist Mário Pinotti. Malaria would become an important bargaining chip in the context of the development policies of Kubitschek. This article focuses on path of the Malaria Control and Eradication Working Group in Brazil, in its varying relationships with the arguments and guidelines established at international level

1952 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles S. Ascher

The International Health Conference, convened by the United Nations in New York in the summer of 1946, adopted a Constitution for a World Health Organization. It set up an Interim Commission of persons designated by eighteen named states to prepare for the First World Health Assembly and to carry on tasks inherited from previous international organizations. Unexpected delays in ratifications of the Constitution obliged the Interim Commission to operate for two years. WHO has thus been free to shape its destiny only from the time of the First World Health Assembly in the summer of 1948; it began its work formally as of September 1, 1948. The activities from 1946 to 1948 were largely determined by heritages from earner organizations; these, indeed, dominated the first program of WHO. The intervening three years have witnessed new trends, which some observers applaud and others view with doubt, if not alarm. It may be fruitful at this time to record some of these trends, to note the pressures which caused them and their implications for WHO's program and work-plan.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Kamradt-Scott

The World Health Organization (WHO) is obligated to pursue the control and eradication of infectious disease. This mandate was enshrined in the 1946 constitutive treaty and has been repeatedly reinforced by World Health Assembly resolutions, programmes, and campaigns. In 1951 a purpose-built instrument – the International Sanitary Regulations – was adopted to strengthen the international organization’s means for preventing the international spread of disease while minimising disruption to international traffic and trade. The Regulations – which are now known as ‘the International Health Regulations’ (IHR) – were substantively revised in 2005 and are integral to the WHO’s mission. Importantly, however, as custodian of the revised IHR the WHO has periodically failed to take full advantage of the treaty’s provisions or use it as intended. This article discusses the importance of the IHR, the WHO’s obligations with respect to ensuring the correct functioning of the 2005 treaty, and outlines some measures that will enable the WHO to main stream the treaty and ensure fuller utilization.


2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 384-402
Author(s):  
Samuël Coghe

AbstractDuring the last decades of colonial rule, Belgian colonial authorities, health agencies and researchers intensely engaged with kwashiorkor, a severe syndrome that was deemed widespread among young children in some parts of the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi and chiefly attributed to protein malnutrition. To fight kwashiorkor, the Belgian government, in the early 1950s, set up a joint milk distribution campaign with the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization, the first of its kind in colonial Africa. Placing this campaign in the context of mounting international and inter-imperial concern about kwashiorkor and other nutritional problems in Africa and across the globe, this article explores its rationales, mechanisms and consequences, and in particular, how the campaign was shaped and publicised by FORÉAMI, one of the main health providers on the ground. It not only contributes to the history of European colonial medicine and nutritional policies, but also opens new perspectives on international health collaboration during late colonialism. It argues that Belgian authorities were wary of international interference in colonial policies, but that especially FORÉAMI also viewed and used the campaign as an opportunity to display its ‘mastery’ in rural and infant healthcare and control the narrative on Belgium’s colonial medicine.


Author(s):  
Petr Ilyin

Especially dangerous infections (EDIs) belong to the conditionally labelled group of infectious diseases that pose an exceptional epidemic threat. They are highly contagious, rapidly spreading and capable of affecting wide sections of the population in the shortest possible time, they are characterized by the severity of clinical symptoms and high mortality rates. At the present stage, the term "especially dangerous infections" is used only in the territory of the countries of the former USSR, all over the world this concept is defined as "infectious diseases that pose an extreme threat to public health on an international scale." Over the entire history of human development, more people have died as a result of epidemics and pandemics than in all wars combined. The list of especially dangerous infections and measures to prevent their spread were fixed in the International Health Regulations (IHR), adopted at the 22nd session of the WHO's World Health Assembly on July 26, 1969. In 1970, at the 23rd session of the WHO's Assembly, typhus and relapsing fever were excluded from the list of quarantine infections. As amended in 1981, the list included only three diseases represented by plague, cholera and anthrax. However, now annual additions of new infections endemic to different parts of the earth to this list take place. To date, the World Health Organization (WHO) has already included more than 100 diseases in the list of especially dangerous infections.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 380
Author(s):  
Anissa Chouikha ◽  
Dorra Rezig ◽  
Nadia Driss ◽  
Ichrak Abdelkhalek ◽  
Ahlem Ben Yahia ◽  
...  

This report is an overview of enterovirus (EV) detection in Tunisian polio-suspected paralytic cases (acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) cases), healthy contacts and patients with primary immunodeficiencies (PID) during an 11-year period. A total of 2735 clinical samples were analyzed for EV isolation and type identification, according to the recommended protocols of the World Health Organization. Three poliovirus (PV) serotypes and 28 different nonpolio enteroviruses (NPEVs) were detected. The NPEV detection rate was 4.3%, 2.8% and 12.4% in AFP cases, healthy contacts and PID patients, respectively. The predominant species was EV-B, and the circulation of viruses from species EV-A was noted since 2011. All PVs detected were of Sabin origin. The PV detection rate was higher in PID patients compared to AFP cases and contacts (6.8%, 1.5% and 1.3% respectively). PV2 was not detected since 2015. Using nucleotide sequencing of the entire VP1 region, 61 strains were characterized as Sabin-like. Among them, six strains of types 1 and 3 PV were identified as pre-vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs). Five type 2 PV, four strains belonging to type 1 PV and two strains belonging to type 3 PV, were classified as iVDPVs. The data presented provide a comprehensive picture of EVs circulating in Tunisia over an 11-year period, reveal changes in their epidemiology as compared to previous studies and highlight the need to set up a warning system to avoid unnoticed PVs.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002073142110249
Author(s):  
Huriye Toker

As seen clearly from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, health is an important foreign policy and diplomatic issue connected with security, economic well-being, and international development. According to risk communication researchers, effective, transparent, and timely information sharing is the most important tool after vaccines for responding to pandemics. This study aims to start a scholarly discussion on the risk communication efforts of the World Health Organization (WHO) during the COVID-19 outbreak. We analyzed WHO’s communication efforts during the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the leading international health organization, WHO was responsible for providing rapid, up-to-date, and credible information for the public and the media. The selected research items were 42 news releases and statements provided by WHO between December 31, 2019, and March 30, 2020. These were subjected to qualitative and quantitative content analyses using the NVivo 12 qualitative analysis software program for coding. The data were coded under 6 variables (date of publication, topics, frequency, wording of the COVID-19 outbreak, sourcing, and themes of the releases). While 54.7% of WHO's communications were devoted to the COVID-19 outbreak, more than half were not issued until March. That is, instead of early risk communication and clear warnings about the outbreak, WHO acted overcautiously, preferring messages related to solidarity and cooperation during the most devastating pandemic of the 21st century.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick M Burkle ◽  
Christopher M Burkle

AbstractLiberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea lack the public health infrastructure, economic stability, and overall governance to stem the spread of Ebola. Even with robust outside assistance, the epidemiological data have not improved. Vital resource management is haphazard and left to the discretion of individual Ebola treatment units. Only recently has the International Health Regulations (IHR) and World Health Organization (WHO) declared Ebola a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, making this crisis their fifth ongoing level 3 emergency. In particular, the WHO has been severely compromised by post-2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) staffing, budget cuts, a weakened IHR treaty, and no unambiguous legal mandate. Population-based triage management under a central authority is indicated to control the transmission and ensure fair and decisive resource allocation across all triage categories. The shared responsibilities critical to global health solutions must be realized and the rightful attention, sustained resources, and properly placed legal authority be assured within the WHO, the IHR, and the vulnerable nations. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2014;0:1-6)


2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 414-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shivani Parmar ◽  
Ano Lobb ◽  
Susan Purdin ◽  
Sharon McDonnell

AbstractThe effectiveness of humanitarian response efforts has long been hampered by a lack of coordination among responding organizations. The need for increased coordination and collaboration, as well as the need to better understand experiences with coordination, were recognized by participants of a multilateral Working Group convened to examine the challenges of coordination in humanitarian health responses. This preliminary study is an interim report of an ongoing survey designed by the Working Group to describe the experiences of coordination and collaboration in greater detail, including factors that promote or discourage coordination and lessons learned, and to determine whether there is support for a new consortium dedicated to coordination. To date, 30 key informants have participated in 25-minute structured interviews that were recorded and analyzed for major themes. Participants represented 21 different agencies and organizations: nine non-governmental organizations, eight academic institutions, two donor organizations, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization.Common themes that emerged included the role of donors in promoting coordination, the need to build an evidence base, the frequent occurrence of field-level coordination, and the need to build new partnerships. Currently, there is no consensus that a new consortium would be helpful.Addressing the underlying structural and professional factors that currently discourage coordination may be a more effective method for enhancing coordination during humanitarian responses.


2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (S2) ◽  
pp. 49-56
Author(s):  
Polly J. Price

These teaching materials explore the specific powers of governments to implement control measures in response to communicable disease, in two different contexts:The first context concerns global pandemic diseases. Relevant legal authority includes international law, World Health Organization governance and the International Health Regulations, and regulatory authority of nations.The second context is centered on U.S. law and concerns control measures for drug-resistant disease, using tuberculosis as an example. In both contexts, international and domestic, the point is to understand legal authority to address public health emergencies.


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