WFPHA at EB152: Statement on Social Determinants of Health

The 152nd session of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Executive Board takes place on 30 January – 07 February 2023.

The World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) attended this session with a statement on Social Determinants of Health.

Outside factors beyond the medical sector play a critical role in health as determined by the interplay between health and environment. Most recently, the pandemic, alongside increasing social unrest, has exacerbated socioeconomic inequities both locally and internationally, consequently deepening health inequities, particularly amongst the most vulnerable who lack access to health services.

We, the World Federation of Public Health Associations, therefore ask member states to collect and report relevant patient and health service data in a transparent manner in order to allow us to monitor health inequities and advance evidence-based policies to improve primary care, expand universal health coverage, and better prepare for future health emergencies in a way that addresses the social determinants of health.

WFPHA at EB148: Statement on Social Determinants of Health

The 148th session of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Executive Board take place on 18-26 January 2021.

The World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) attended this session with a statement on Social Determinants of Health.

The WFPHA, supported by SHEM, commends the priority that WHO Director-General is giving to the Social Determinants of Health and the implementation made by the Assistant Director-General of UHC -Healthier Populations and her team. The document EB148/24 on Social determinants of health presented before the Executive Committee highlight the importance of this theme for controlling the COVID Pandemics, other future health emergencies, and global health as countries emerge from the pandemic.

We also commend the openness and collaboration that the secretariat has with public health, scientific, and civil society organizations. The excellent interactions with the Department of Social Determinants regarding the identification and description of case studies are examples of this collaboration. We stand ready to continue collaborating on the theme of social determinants of health and health equity and hope that member-states will support this area’s continuation and strengthening in WHO.

WFPHA at EB148: Statement on Oral Health

The 148th session of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Executive Board take place on 18-26 January 2021.

The World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) attended this session with a statement on Oral Health.

WFPHA is concerned about the recently published WHO Report “Oral health: Achieving better oral health as part of the universal health coverage and noncommunicable disease agendas towards 2030”. In this report it mentions fluoride toothpaste as a means of preventing dental caries but fails to mention fluoride varnish, water fluoridation, fluoridated salt or dental (fluoridated) milk. This is disappointing and a missed opportunity as WHO has in the past been very supportive of the use of fluoride in a number of forms in improving dental health. Different countries have chosen which of these various vehicles to use for delivering fluoride to their communities depending on local political, financial, technical and geographical circumstances. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Spain, USA, Canada and Australia for example use water fluoridation, Switzerland, France, Romania, Colombia and Mexico are among the countries with fluoridated salt, whilst Bulgaria, Chile, China, Peru and Thailand have fluoridated milk schemes. Many countries, including a number of those with these systemic fluoride schemes, have topical fluoride varnish programmes especially aimed at vulnerable children.

It may be an oversight to fail to make some mention of the varied fluoride programmes used by different countries, but the lack of endorsement by WHO could easily be used by fluoride deniers as indicating a substantial change of WHO policy. This could therefore cause problems both in relation to any extension of fluoride use and also the continuation of existing programmes in those countries with established schemes.

We recommend that the document be altered to underline the WHO support the continuation of fluoride use in these various forms and encourage countries to consider which of the various options are most appropriate for their population. To fail to do so would be to the detriment of oral health especially of some of the most vulnerable communities in the world.

WFPHA at EB148: Statement on COVID-19 Response

The 148th session of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Executive Board take place on 18-26 January 2021.

The World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) attended this session with a strong statement on COVID-19 Response.

The global civil society claims for equitable access to vaccines against Covid-19

To protect people’s lives, an effective and safe COVID-19 immunization should be considered a global public good, and vaccines should be produced at larger volumes, distributed equitably between countries, and provided at no cost to the user. Furthermore, without an equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines between countries, the world economy will not recover, causing greater human suffering and premature mortality.

Unless governments and the pharmaceutical industry take urgent action to ensure that enough COVID-19 vaccine doses are produced, 92 low- and middle-income countries will be able to vaccinate against COVID-19 only one in five people in 2021. On the other hand, high-income countries, which account for just 14% of the world’s population, have already purchased 48% of the 8.6 billion doses of the most promising vaccines.

This can be achieved by waiving intellectual property rights to vaccines, tests, and treatments related to COVID-19, openly sharing the vaccines’ technology and intellectual property through the WHO, fully funding COVAX, stopping bilateral deals, and investing in WHO efforts and in the strengthening of national health systems.

Given these facts, WFPHA respectfully ask the Executive Board to take actions to materialize what was proposed in the Resolution WHA73.1 ‘Covid-19 response’ related to the UNGA Resolution A/RES/75/130 ‘Global Health and Foreign Policy’ . Both resolutions, signed by all UN and WHO Member States, decided for equitable access to vaccines to face COVID-19.

Statement on COVID-19 Immunization and Equitable Access to Vaccines

Immunization is one of the most successful public health measures of modern times. Annually immunization prevents an estimated 2.5 million deaths globally and reduces disease-specific treatment costs (World Health Organization 2018).

For all the devastation caused by COVID-19, an important lesson is that the balance needs to shift from treating disease to preventing it. Immunization has an important role to play in prevention not only for infants but throughout life as a key component of healthy ageing. Further, it has positive long-term impact, contributing to make communities healthier and promote social and economic development.

Specific to COVID-19, almost everyone is at risk and may require vaccination if given the opportunity. Hence, it is likely that demand will surpass supply. The concern of the WFPHA International Immunization Policy Task Force is the tendency for the rich to acquire and pay for the limited supply of available efficacious vaccines to the detriment of the populations genuinely at-risk, particularly in low-income settings.

Not surprisingly, the race to produce a safe and efficacious vaccine for COVID-19 has been on-going and there are indications that success may not be too far away.

An important lesson from previous immunisation programs is that, even when effective and safe vaccines are available, vulnerable persons in low-income settings usually do not have access to these vaccines for some time, if at all. There is a myriad of reasons for this state of affairs. These include (among others) high cost of vaccination programmes for countries, health systems, families and individual, individual’s poor geographical access to vaccination centres, and inadequate supply of available vaccines due to competition. Therefore, the WFPHA International Immunization Policy Task Force provides Statement on COVID-19 Immunization and Equitable Access to Vaccines.

Statement in Arabic

Statement in French