Narrowing World Health Disparities
TIME - USA
In every country around the world, WHO's Commission on the Social
Determinants of Health found that the very best off had better health than
people a few ...
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WHO calls for life expectancy gap to be closed
ABC Online - Australia
The new WHO report on the social determinants of health points out for
example that a girl born in Japan is likely to live 42 years longer than
one born in ...
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Social injustice can kill, global panel claims
Globe and Mail - Canada
The 256-page report, entitled Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health
Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health, also
challenges current ...
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Merlin welcomes new report highlighting unfair distribution of ...
Reuters AlertNet - London,England,UK
Reducing health inequities is an ethical imperative, according to the
Commission on Social Determinants of Health, Chaired by Professor Sir
Michael Marmot, ...
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http://www.who.int/social_determinants/final_report/en/index.html
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=27857&Cr=WHO&Cr1=
Global social inequalities lead to widely diverging health patterns ? UN
report
28 August 2008 ? A Japanese woman will live 42 years longer than a woman
in Lesotho, and such a staggering disparity in life expectancy is due to
inequalities in where people are born, grow up and age, the United Nations
World Health Organization (WHO) said in a new report issued today.
"Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale," a commission
comprised of academics including Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, former
heads of state and health ministers said after a three-year investigation.
According to their study, entitled "Closing the Gap in a Generation:
Health Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health,"
biology is not at fault for the odds of a woman in Afghanistan dying in
childbirth being 1 in 8, compared to a mother in Sweden, where the risk is
1 in 17,400.
"The toxic combination of bad policies, economics, and politics is, in
large measure, responsible for the fact that a majority of people in the
world do not enjoy the good health that is biologically possible," the
report noted.
Recent years have witnessed surges in global wealth, technology and living
standards, but how resources are allocated to services and
institution-building in low-income countries is key.
A nation's wealth alone does not determine the health of its population,
the Commission said, citing the examples of Cuba, Costa Rica, China and
Sri Lanka as countries which have achieved high levels of health despite
relatively low national incomes.
The report pointed to the model of Nordic countries, where resources are
put towards promoting equal benefits and services, full employment and
gender equality, as well as for curbing social exclusion.
It also highlighted some glaring inequalities in health within countries.
An indigenous Australian male can expect to live 17 years shorter than all
other men in the same country, while maternal mortality is three to four
times higher among Indonesia's poor women compared to its rich women.
To broach inequalities both within and among nations, the 13-member
Commission made three broad recommendations: to boost daily living
conditions; to address distortions in the distribution of power, money and
resources; and to understand the problem's scope.
"Health inequity really is a matter of life and death," said WHO
Director-General Margaret Chan, who was presented with the report today.
She stressed that national health systems will not trend towards equity
without "unprecedented leadership" to drive people on all fronts, not just
in the health sector.
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