posted on behalf of Maija Kagis.

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This message was abbreviated to fit within CLICK4HP's limit of 250 lines.
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The following news release can also be found on the WHO website at:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr13/en/index.html

----- Original Message -----
From: Maija Kagis
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 10:28 AM

Canada is well represented except that the most serious researcher and
best person, Dennis Raphael, was not named. Monique is now more a
political figure head than anything else....damn!!! m

----- Original Message -----
  From: María Hamlin Zúniga
  To: PHM_Steering_Group_02-03 ; Iphcworldwide

  Our congratulations to Fran Baum, Commissioner!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


  The President of Chile and the WHO Director-General launch global
Commission to tackle the "causes behind the causes of ill-health"

  Today, the President of the Republic of Chile, His Excellency Mr Ricardo
Lagos Escobar and World Health Organization Director-General, Dr LEE
Jong-wook launched the Commission on Social Determinants of Health, a
new body to spearhead action on the social causes behind ill-health.

  The new Commission includes leading global experts on health, education,
housing and economics. Commissioners will work to recommend the best
ways to address health's social determinants and safeguard the health of
poor and marginalized populations, and to break the "poverty equals
ill-health' cycle.

  "Social standing plays a big part in whether people will live to be 40
or 80, whether they will be treated for a curable disease, and whether
their children survive their fifth birthday. People should not die young
because they are poor. This commission will assist countries, no matter
how rich or poor, to implement strategies that will help people who are
poor and marginalized live longer, healthier lives," said Dr Lee at the
official launch in Santiago, Chile. "This effectively places the needs
of the disadvantaged first on the health agenda in the 21st century."

  Social determinants are the conditions in which people live and work.
They are the "causes behind the causes" of ill-health. They include
poverty, social exclusion, inappropriate housing, shortcomings in
safeguarding early childhood development, unsafe employment conditions,
and lack of quality health systems.

  The core of the Commission's work will be to identify, evaluate, adapt
and distribute effective strategies to address social determinants, with
the aim of supporting governments to scale-up interventions. The
Commission will operate for three years from this month.

  "A great share of health problems is attributable to social conditions,
and this is why the poor carry the greatest burden of ill-health. On a
global scale, we must ensure that health policies move beyond
exclusively disease-focused solutions and include the social
environment," said Commission Chair Michael Marmot. "I am honoured to be
working with Commissioners of such a high calibre. We will arm
policymakers with the best evidence to ensure that poverty does not
sentence a person to a shorter, unhealthy life."

  Social determinants are intrinsically linked to inequities in health.
They help to explain why poor and marginalized people get sick and die
sooner than people in better social positions. They are a significant
reason behind the world's vast difference in average life expectancy,
which ranges from 34 years in Sierra Leone (lowest in the world) to 81.9
in Japan (highest in the world). Social determinants also account for
the majority of health inequities within countries. In Indonesia,
under-five mortality is nearly four times higher in the poorest fifth of
the population than in the richest fifth. In England and Wales, the
latest data shows a 7.4 year gap in life expectancy between men in
professional occupations and men in unskilled manual occupations
(1997-1999 figures).

  Some countries-such as Chile, Sweden, and the United Kingdom-are already
advancing innovative health programmes that address social determinants
through a comprehensive inter-sectoral approach. For instance, social
welfare programmes with benefits conditional on children's school
attendance, regular medical check-ups, and other health-promoting
actions are helping to reverse the "poverty equals ill-health" trend.
Health inequity assessments resulting in the declaration of "health
action zones" and health promotion campaigns targeting disadvantaged
people are also safeguarding the health of vulnerable groups.

  The Commission will identify successful strategies now underway in
countries. It will work with national authorities to determine ways to
replicate success in other countries and settings. Whereas, to date, the
greatest progress in tackling social determinants has occurred in
high-income countries, the Commission will focus especially on
identifying and promoting policies applicable in developing countries,
where the adverse health effects of social determinants are greatest.
Overcoming these social barriers represents a prime opportunity to
reduce global health inequalities and ensure that health gains are
sustainable over time.

  The Commission will focus the attention of the world's top experts and
researchers on specific social determinants such as urban settings,
social exclusion, and employment conditions. These "Knowledge Networks"
will push the limits of current information to better define the links
between social determinants and health, particularly in developing
countries.

  The Commission on Social Determinants of Health will work with national
authorities to incorporate social determinants approaches into efforts
to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs recognize the
interdependence of health and other social conditions, and present an
opportunity to promote health policies that tackle the social roots of
unfair and avoidable human suffering.

  The Commission on the Social Determinants of Health

        Frances Baum: Australia
       Professor of Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide; Global
Steering Committee, People's Health Movement

        Monique Bégin: Canada
       Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of
Ottawa; former Canadian Minister of National Health and Welfare

        Giovanni Berlinguer: Italy
       Member of European Parliament; Professor of Hygiene, Occupational
Health and of Bioethics (Emeritus), University "La Sapienza", Rome

        Mirai Chatterjee: India
       Coordinator of Social Security, Self-Employed Women's Association
(SEWA)

        Manuel Dayrit: Philippines
       Secretary of Health, Philippines

        William Foege: USA
       Emeritus Presidential Distinguished Professor of International
Health, Emory University, and Gates Fellow; former Director of the
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

        Kiyoshi Kurokawa: Japan
       President of the Science Council of Japan

        Ricardo Lagos: Chile
       President of the Republic of Chile

        Stephen Lewis: Canada
       United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa

        Alireza Marandi: Iran
       Professor of Pediatrics at Shaheed Behesti University, Tehran;
former Minister of Health and Medical Education, Islamic Republic
of Iran

        Michael Marmot: UK
       Commission Chair and Director, International Centre for Health and
Society, University College London

        Charity Ngilu: Kenya
       Minister of Health, Kenya

        Hoda Rashad: Egypt
       Research Professor and Director, Social Research Centre, American
University of Cairo; Member of El Shoura Council of the Senate

        Amartya Sen: India
       1998 Nobel laureate in economics; Lamont University Professor,
Harvard University, Cambridge

        David Satcher: USA
       Interim President of the Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta,
Georgia; former Surgeon General of the USA

        Anna Tibaijuka: Tanzania
       Executive-Director, UN-HABITAT

        Denny Vagero: Sweden
       Director of the Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), Stockholm
University/ Karolinska Institute

[the rest of this message was 'snipped' but the information can be found at:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr13/en/index1.html and
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr13/en/index2.html ]

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