Call for Immediate End to War in Ukraine

Global medical and public health organizations call for immediate end to war in Ukraine and critical need to prevent nuclear escalation.

Representing doctors, public health professionals and medical students worldwide, we call for an immediate cease fire and the withdrawal of all invading and occupying military forces and an urgent negotiated end to the current war in Ukraine.

The alarmingly acute and growing danger of nuclear escalation must be reversed and nuclear war prevented by the urgent elimination of nuclear weapons.

Mental Health: A Priority

A Reflection by Public Health Leadership Coalition’s Advocate – Prof. Maria Rosaria Gualano

Public Mental Health should be a priority of the public health agenda worldwide, both for healthcare workers, deeply impacted by the pandemic, and for everyone. Systemic changes are urgently needed, especially in low and middle-income countries.

A paper published on “Frontiers in Public Health” highlighted the factors influencing mental health of healthcare professionals and calls for efforts to develop healthcare services in a framework of Workplace Culture and Leadership.

What Is Leadership in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic?

A Reflection by Public Health Leadership Coalition’s Member – Prof. Luís Eugênio de Souza

Leadership can be defined as the collection of competences – knowledge, skills and aptitudes – through which a group, sharing core beliefs, creates or adapts a vision to a specific context and enable – directly or indirectly – its implementation.

During a pandemic, the most essential work of a leader is to empower citizens and communities. To accomplish this work, a very special type of leadership is more efficient than individual leadership: a “leadership coalition”, that is, a dynamic and collective process in which a team of technically competent, ethically responsible and socially committed people work together to promote a democratic and evidence-informed policymaking process that can lead to the implementation of effective public health interventions.

The leadership coalition is all the more important as far-reaching changes are needed. As it becomes clear that humanity will not overcome the current multiple crisis – health, social, economic – without changing the unsustainable, predatory and unfair ways in which it deals with nature and with all social groups – especially the most vulnerable -, the relevance and urgency of shared and distributed leadership is evident.

It is important to keep in mind that the COVID-19 crisis is more than a pandemic, it is a syndemic, that is, a complex phenomenon that involves adverse and synergistic interactions between different diseases and precarious social conditions. To overcome this critical situation, the world needs shared and distributed leadership, involving people and teams from the most diverse sectors, such as health and social assistance, environment, economy, etc.

The Public Health Leadership Coalition, led by the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA), embraces the value of health as a human right and equity as the primary approach to ensuring health for all. Through its activities, it contributes ideas and advocacy practices for multilateral organizations, national governments and local civil society organizations to adopt and implement evidence-informed policies to combat the syndemic.

More specifically, the Public Health Leadership Coalition advocates equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines between and within countries, the adoption of a Pandemic Treaty that improves preparedness and response to health emergencies, strengthening national health systems, and greater professional recognition of health workers.

Undoubtedly, achieving these goals is not easy, given the opposition of powerful agents such as large companies that benefit from predatory activities of nature and concentrating wealth. However, maintaining the current status quo is impossible, as it is incompatible with preserving life on Earth. Change is necessary and possible!

Letters to the UN and WHO on Afghanistan

The political situation has dramatically changed in Afghanistan since August 2021, and it had devastating impacts on the country’s health sector. Millions of people have limited or no access to healthcare services and they are facing trauma due to decades of war and internal conflicts.

The World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) is highly concerned of the grave implications the situation may have on the health infrastructure, impacting dramatically the health of the population, if the pace of response is not accelerated. Representing the voices of 130 public health associations, the Federation would like to draw your attention to the serious/grave situation on the ground and urge that the World Health Organization (WHO) calls for a special support to Afghanistan’s health sector, to ensure the restoration and possible scale up of basic health services, especially to the most vulnerable sections of the population, including women and children.

We believe that it is our joint responsibility to help Afghanistan, strengthen the healthcare system, which is on the verge of collapse, and protect people’s lives.

Vaccines for Older Adults: Going beyond COVID-19 to Continue Protecting our Communities

The ageing of the global population implies a longer timeline, the side effects of this can cause increased health system and socioeconomic burden. This trend should be met with a life-course approach to health and special attention on disease prevention, including vaccination. How can we protect our elderly and our communities through effective vaccination?

On March 10, 2022, at 16:00 (EST), key opinion leaders from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Taiwan and El Salvador discuss the main concrete steps to implement vaccination for the elderly in different contexts.

This event is available to view by clicking on the link below.

War Never Settles Who Is Right But Who Is Wrong. Might, Not Right, Conquers!

The world community of people working for the public’s health know that war, and any form of armed conflict never solves any issues, in the contrary induces physical, mental and moral damage to all. Today, we are witnessing wars around the globe. The most recent start of a war in Ukraine is not acceptable, by no means. The short and long-term damages to both the Ukrainian and Russian people and the global community are enormous.

As professionals working for the public’s health all over the world we condemn the attack on Ukraine. We ask the governments, the United Nations organization and the government of the Russian Federation to do everything to stop this absurd explosion of aggression on people’s lives, their living conditions and those of the generations to follow.