Public health

The World Health Assembly is the supreme decision-making body for WHO. It generally meets in Geneva in May each year, and is attended by delegations from all 192 member states.

Addressing sexual and reproductive health is key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, reveals a new report today released by the UN Millennium Project at the Global Health Council's 33rd Annual International Conference on Global Health.

Managing the Politics of Equity and Social Determinants of Health - the title of the informal briefing the Commission held at the 59th World Health Assembly.

The Third Public Health Conference was successfully held from the 16th to the 17th May 2006 at the Eskom Convention Centre, Midrand. The theme of the conference was Making Health Systems Work with two sub-themes that were decreasing the burden of disease and increasing equity, effectiveness and efficiency. The conference was co-hosted by PHASA, the Gauteng Department of Health, the University of the Witwatersrand School of Public Health, Health Systems Trust, the International Epidemiology Association (IEA) and INCLEN Africa.

PHASA is pleased to announce that the Third National Conference will be held from the 15th - 17th May 2006 in Gauteng. The conference will be co-hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand, Gauteng Department of Health and Health Systems Trust. This conference brings together public health professionals working in all disciplines to share research findings on issues pertinent to population health in South Africa and the region.

PHASA is pleased to announce that the Third National Conference will be held from the 15th - 17th May 2006 in Gauteng. The conference will be co-hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand, Gauteng Department of Health and Health Systems Trust. This conference brings together public health professionals working in all disciplines to share research findings on issues pertinent to population health in South Africa and the region.

Of the ten countries in the world that have the worst rates of child mortality, six* are in West Africa - a region that has seen more than its share of repression and civil strife over recent years.

Directly observed therapy (DOT) -- a controversial technique in which health care workers or community volunteers watch patients swallow tablets -- does not have a significant impact on tuberculosis patients, according to a new report from The Cochrane Library. Still, DOT remains a central tenet of international recommendations for curbing the spread of treatment-resistant bacteria, and experts say they are unconvinced that cliniciansshould abandon the technique.

Four million health workers are needed to combat the chronic shortage around the world, a report from the World Health Organization has warned.

BAREILLY, India The cry went up the moment the polio vaccination team was spotted Hide your children!Some families slammed doors on the two volunteers going house to house with polio drops in this teeming city's decrepit maze of lanes, saying that they feared the vaccine would sicken or sterilize their children, or simply that they were fed up with the long drive to eradicate polio. We have a lot of other problems, and you don't care about those, shouted one woman from behind a locked door. All you have is drops. My children get other diseases, and we don't get help.