(ANSA) – ROME, 07 APR – Exactly 75 years ago, “for the first time in history, health was formally recognized as a human right with the entry into force of the Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO)”. The director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recalled this in a tweet, on the occasion of World Health Day which is celebrated today, April 7, the anniversary of the entry into force of the WHO Constitution.
The United Nations agency’s Constitution, he explains, “was the first document in history to formally recognize health as a right. Since then, the world has made significant progress towards realizing that vision.” Life expectancy globally has increased from 46 to 73 years. Smallpox has been eradicated and polio is close to being eradicated; 42 countries have eliminated malaria. Epidemics of HIV and tuberculosis have been pushed back, 47 countries have eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease; in 20 years maternal mortality has decreased by a third and infant mortality has halved. New vaccines for Ebola and malaria have been authorized in the last 5 years and WHO has coordinated the global response to the Covid pandemic, the most serious of the last century.
“We cannot claim exclusive merit for these results – Tedros specified yesterday at a press conference – but we have played a leading role in all of them” and “many open challenges remain”: since 2000, access to essential services has increased significantly; the number of people experiencing financial hardship as a result of direct health care spending has increased by a third, to nearly two billion; rates of diabetes and obesity have soared; progress against malaria and tuberculosis has stalled; antimicrobial resistance threatens to undo a century of medical progress; air pollution and climate change are putting the planet at risk. “For all these reasons and more – he concluded – the world needs the WHO, now more than ever”. (HANDLE).
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