Kamala Sarup: World Health Day 2006 & HIV Crisis

Each year on April 7th, the world celebrates World Health Day. This year, the theme for World Health Day is "Working together for Health" and will be devoted to the health workforce crisis. Anti poverty wars have been fought to acquire people's good health to maintain it. Good health carries responsibilities. However, there is a chronic global shortage of health workers.

Health workforce crisis is an imminent crisis and the world came very, very close. There have been other incidents which are not so well known. The point is that with all the modern medicines, and clinics, hospitals available and the number of people working to solve the problem. How people can help Itself in 2006 to resolve the health workforce crisis? The failure to effectively medicines, the power of the local people can be at least partially unleashed as health workers and patients.

The effective health programs around the world with existing state structures. So how can concerned authorities help itself and bootstrap/leverage to the maximum effect? Rather than contest each and every move by the health workers should skillfully maneuver and this should not be difficult for work forces. This process, combined with the classic "co-relation of forces" should provide at least the outlines of responses to current and future problems.

The second half of this equation is "proof of concept". One area which could be used to good effect immediately is the ongoing difficulties in the HIV/AIDS problem. If the leadership could run the above two equations and then see whether cooperation with the people it will and it may be surprisingly effective. Are there difficulties? Of course. Can it be resolved? of course it can. So, health especially HIV/AIDS and Sex education in schools is important because such education allows the people to skate around such delicate topics as HIV/AIDS.

This is always prominently mentioned as source of huge concern as Nepal's health situation must continues increased. Will Nepal require much more health budget? Of course it will. But there are ample reserves throughout the world's very complex and well-managed international health system to accommodate such growth for the foreseeable future. Any shortfalls should be able to be made up with health programs. In short, Nepal represent a huge benefit to global health programs. The main threats that are the usual: HIV/AIDS.

People need to know more about how they can be infected, and should get tested. If they test positive for HIV, they can take steps to reduce the risk of infecting others.

In Nepal, 30 new cases of AIDS infection are detected every day. With the increase in numbers, UNAIDS has declared Nepal as the 'concentrated epidemic' region. And it is said that if the number increases at this rate, HIV/AIDS will be the major cause of death by 2010. It is a real threat and an increasing threat to development, national security, to human resources.

The epidemic is eroding social networks and traditional support mechanisms as well as challenging the efficacy of legal and regulatory institutions to respond. HIV/AIDS impacts the business sector by 'increasing expenditures and reducing revenues'. Actions are urgently required to protect people from the epidemic without waiting for a higher proportion of them to be infected.

We cannot let another International health day come and go without understanding that people's health is important. Today marks an urgent occasion to mobilize what is right.

Legislation is desperately needed to curb HIV/AIDS from further spreading. HIV related program should support research initiatives designed to address these and other needs related to efforts to scale up the provision of antiretroviral therapies in developing countries.

But on the other side, because of the maoists war, health care infrastructure has been repeatedly targeted and attacked in Nepal. Secondly, violent conflict has been repeatedly shown to drive HIV/AIDS as it leads to sexual exploitation. In turn, HIV/AIDS increases the burden on fragile health structures. Thus, the initial research on the social, political and economic effects of HIV/AIDS on violent conflict in Nepal must draws a number of conclusions.

HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment should become a standard component of the community's humanitarian response to armed conflict. Voluntary counselling and testing services should be widely available. Special security measures should be put in place to protect women and girls from sexual and gender-based violence.

Political leadership in the fight against AIDS is key. While the summit in Abuja, Nigeria where African leaders pledged to devote 15 percent of their annual public spending to AIDS and other public health priorities.

Conflict also destroys the education systems that might have been able to teach prevention and slow the spread of the disease. No matter how difficult the circumstances, solutions to this crisis must be worked out at local, national and international levels.

(Kamala Sarup has been nominated as Universal Peace Ambassador [2006] in the framework of the Universal Peace Ambassadors Circle, Geneva Switzerland. Sarup can be reached at ksarup@yahoo.com).

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