Report of the day

I thought I would update the blog with the events of the past few days. The World Health Assembly wrapped up its business yesterday. One of the topics discussed was the eradication of Smallpox, and the destruction of the variola virus stocks. Presently, the WHO believes that Smallpox has basically been eradicated from the Earth with the Worldwide use of Smallpox vaccine. There are still various quantities of live variola virus (the virus that causes Smallpox) being kept in research laboratories around the world. The WHO has passed a resolution that all stocks of live variola virus should be destroyed. There is controversy surrounding this however. Some believe that a small stock of the live virus should be kept for future research use. The concern of course, is that if the live virus were to get into the wrong hands, it could be used for biological warfare and other evil causes. Although the resolution has been passed, a consensus of when the destruction of the virus should take place could not be reached. Therefore, a decision has been put off and will be resurfaced at the next WHO meeting next year. My personal feeling about this issue is that we should keep a small stockpile of this live virus just in case more research needs to be done. In the event that someone invents a mutation of the virus that the vaccine would not be effective on, it would be good to have the live virus store available to do research on and find a cure for the mutation. Just my opinion. Many disagree with me. Other resolutions that were discussed in the WHO assembly dealt with the prevalence of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD's), specifically Heart and Cardiovascular Disease, Chronic Respiratory Disease, Diabetes, and Cancer. These groups of diseases affect the global community more than any other group of diseases. The focus on this group of diseases is important because they have huge economic effects on countries' resources. Also, most of these diseases are preventable as they are precipitated by lifestyle choices. The emphasis on NCD's and their affect on the global community was the main priority of the WHO and will be the main objective brought to the UN Assembly to be held in New York this fall. These diseases are literally draining countries' economies (including the U.S.) because of the chronic long-term treatment necessary for patients who have them. It is the changing of lifestyle choices such as smoking, diet, exercise, alcohol consumption and other healthy practices that will enable us to decrease the incidence of these NCD's. It is often believed that NCD's are more prevalent in poverty-stricken communities, and while some of this may be true, an inverse relationship has been found which shows that NCD's actually contribute to the poverty issue due to the decrease in productivity which accompany the diseases. Well, enough of WHO 101, there are many more issues that have been discussed, but I will save them for either another post, or for my lectures at school. We are having a great time. We will be traveling to Bern this weekend to the Swiss Temple and some sight-seeing with our friends Matt and Jade who are coming to Geneva this weekend! In ending, today is the one year anniversary of the death of my dear husband Lynn, who has been my inspiration in all areas of my life, but especially in my pursuit of bettering health-care in the global community. It is to him that I dedicate this adventure. Until the next post....