Human Rights Day 2021

On Human Rights Day 2021, we are aware of the persistence of enormous inequities in the world, which are a flagrant disregard for human rights. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic not only revealed these inequalities but also contributed to their exacerbation.

The 2021 United Nations Theme for Human Rights Day is EQUALITY – Reducing inequalities, advancing human rights. The International Federation of Social Workers and World Federation of Public Health Association jointly advance a statement to continue to advocate with the United Nations, governments, companies and civil societies for the promotion of equity and respect for human rights, starting with the equitable distribution of vaccines and guaranteeing the universal right to sustainable development.

1st WHO-recommended Malaria Vaccine: A New Hope

Malaria is a life-threatening disease which has a devastating impact on people’s health around the world. Despite being preventable and treatable, more than 400 000 people die from malaria annually.1

In 2019, 94% of malaria cases and deaths occurred in the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region. Malaria remains a primary cause of childhood illness and death in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 260 000 African children aged under five years die from malaria annually.1

The WHO’s vision is a world free of malaria. In line with its vision, since October 2021, the WHO recommended the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) as the first malaria vaccine for widespread use among children in areas with moderate to high transmission of P. falciparum malaria, the most deadly malaria parasite in the World and the most prevalent in Africa. The recommendation was based on the results of an ongoing WHO-coordinated pilot program implemented under the leadership of the Ministries of Health of Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that has vaccinated more than 800 000 children since 2019.2

WFPHA applauds all the efforts to control and eliminate malaria globally and provides several recommendations.

Waive Vaccine Intellectual Property Rights Now!

In the current global pandemic, vaccine equity means a fair distribution of vaccine, so that all countries can immunise their populations regardless of their income, pre-existing infrastructure, political context or economic development. People who live in low-and-middle-income countries are significantly less likely to have access to vaccination than those in high income countries, even if they are in the highest clinical risk groups or are health or care workers. COVID-19 vaccines significantly reduce the burden of serious illness, death, duration of symptoms and risk of transmission. Vaccination is our most important means to control the pandemic. Failure to control the level of virus circulating in communities increases the risk that new vaccine-resistant variants will emerge. This will prolong the pandemic for all countries, leaving us all at risk of new, high consequence variants. It remains the case that we will not be free of this virus, until we are all free of it.

The Global Network for Academic Public Health and WFPHA has released a statement in support of waiving intellectual property rights related to COVID-19 vaccines to increase global vaccine equity.

Evidence-based Leadership Is more Important than ever before!

A Reflection by Public Health Leadership Coalition’s Member – Prof. Walter Ricciardi

The COVID-19 pandemic acted like a global tsunami, exacerbating the existing challenges and focusing attention of new ones and demonstrating the weaknesses of our interconnected world. Governments and citizens have had deal not only with health issues, but also with social, economic, political challenges: the great challenges since the Second World War.

We are living in a rapidly changing world, on one hand there is the planet: we must put attention on planetary health and climate changes, and on the other hand the world created by humans: we must manage the digitalization processes in a fair way and address the great inequalities existing. To date, for instance, 49% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine (6.94 billion doses administered globally), but, alarmingly, only 3.1% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose. In such a context, effective and evidence-based leadership is more important than ever before.

As recognized from the World Health Organization (WHO) also, a lack of coordinated and global leadership in difficult times bring to a bad management of the current challenges and prolong the coronavirus pandemic.

The pillars to act in the right direction are: to enforce the preparedness, also by sharing reliable and standardized data, at global, regional and national level, ensuring learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic help inform other public health crises, for example climate change, to make the decision making processes driven by robust evidence, to strengthen one health approaches, to improve health/digital/media literacy and to ensure fair access to health and healthcare services and goods, including medicines and vaccines, by reducing inequalities and injustices.

In September 2021, the Health Ministers from G20 Countries, have united to pledge global action to improve future health security, increase vaccine confidence and tackle antimicrobial resistance in a Health Declaration agreed in Rome: an important pact to afford health issues, but not only, all together.

Interestingly, the OECD Ministers that have endorsed a new initiative to promote safe international travel during the COVID-19 pandemic at the OECD’s annual Ministerial meeting in Paris. The Initiative involves a safe travel blueprint and a temporary international cross-sectoral forum for knowledge sharing.

The World federation of Public Health Association is supporting international initiatives, such as the development and implementation of the WHO proposed Global Pandemic Treaty. In a global word, only with a global approach we can afford such great deal, there are no other possible ways.

Nutrition, Alcohol, and Environmental Impact Labels Should Protect Public Interests

The WFPHA has signed “Nutrition, Alcohol, and Environmental Impact Labels Should Protect Public Interests, Not Sell Foods that are Harmful to Humans and the Planet” statement urging the Codex Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL) and its member states to implement several reforms.