WHO Urges Rich Countries To Help Poor Afford Drugs

The World Health Organ­iza­tion has passed a resolution urging richer countries to help poorer countries have better access to HIV/AIDS drugs, Health Min­ister Hong Sun Huot said Mon­day upon his return from Geneva.

The resolution also calls on mem­ber nations to promote the devel­opment of cheap, easily avail­­able drugs to treat other in­fectious illnesses that afflict mostly poor people, said Hong Sun Huot, who chaired the congress in Geneva last week.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in an address to the congress, said AIDS and diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria “blight the prospects of many developing countries,” according to a press release from WHO’s Phnom Penh office. Annan outlined a plan for a multibillion-dollar agency to combat the spread of infectious diseases in poor coun­tries.

The congress also resolved to help improve mental health care in poor countries, Hong Sun Huot said. Currently, there is almost no mental health care available in Cam­bodia.

The meeting was the first to be chaired by a Cambodian official since 1953, Hong Sun Huot said. “I’m very proud,” he said, noting that the Cambodian flag now flies next to the WHO flag at the Gen­eva offices.

 

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