Achieving Sustainable Health Development : : 2004 Annual Conference

13th Annual IHMEC Conference
February 16 - 18, 2004
Antigua, Guatemala

Preamble
Achieving global health and social equity is one of the biggest challenges of the new century. The major inequities exist between developed and developing countries. For the 75% of the world’s population living in developing countries, there are also many differences in resources, public infrastructure, bio-environment, culture, and religion. These differences mean that where a child is born is a key determinant of survival, growth, health, and economic well being.

The Conference theme provides an opportunity to present and learn from successful interventions to improve the lives of mothers and children. Nutrition is one of the key elements in maternal and child health. Models that are effective, sustainable, and replicable will be the focus of the program. The goal is to assess effective interventions and to develop new strategies for improving maternal and child health through service delivery, research, and education.

Maternal Health

Maternal health interventions will focus on women’s health, especially related to pregnancy and motherhood. The emphasis will be on optimal nutrition through education, healthy behaviors, and empowerment. A woman’s health is also affected by where she lives, and the availability and affordability of nutritious foods. This includes food insecurity both in prosperous times and during droughts, as well as population migration due to economic and political conditions, natural disaster, and war. Moreover, in developing countries, maternal nutrition and reproductive health are affected by a host of health conditions that include anemia, vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies, malaria, TB, and AIDS. The burden of these diseases is compounded by new health problems due to unhealthy behaviors such as alcohol, smoking, and drug addiction. These problems in turn contribute to the emergence of chronic diseases as a double burden that includes coronary artery disease and stroke, diabetes, cancer, and psychiatric illnesses. It has been well demonstrated that the disability burden of disease is greater for women than for men.

“Safe Motherhood” practices provide a cornerstone in improving maternal health, but consideration must also be given to societal risk factors contributing to morbidity and mortality. These include ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. Maternal mortality is just one indicator of the risks of being a woman. More than 500,000 women die each year as a result of pregnancy and childbirth and millions more become ill or disabled.

Women’s health and well-being have significant economic impact at the household, community, and country levels. These have not been well studied and are often underestimated. Effective strategies to improve women’s health require improving women’s status in the family and in the community.

Child Health

Neonatal health is intimately related to maternal health and nutrition. However, early in infancy infectious diseases and malnutrition begin to take a heavy toll on child survival. Acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) and diarrheal diseases augmented by malnutrition are the leading causes of child death in the developing world; malnutrition contributes to 54% of child deaths worldwide. Other major infectious diseases affecting child health are malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV. HIV has further consequences in creating orphans and destroying families and culture. In addition, there is increasing evidence of long-term morbidity from infectious diseases and nutritional deficiencies, resulting in declines in development and intellectual achievement. These have serious consequences for the future.

Most of these conditions are treatable if identified early. Detection methods include growth monitoring, training community health workers, and blood tests. Well established prevention methods include exclusive breast feeding, introduction of high quality complementary foods, good sanitation and hygiene, and immunization. Oral rehydration therapy, iron supplementation, and antibiotics have been effective treatments for some of these conditions. Nutrition plays an important role in child health as well as survival.

The likely depletion of water resources, food production, and sources of natural fuels in the future will further complicate this situation.

To paraphrase the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral:

Many things can wait; the child cannot. Now is the time that bones are being formed; the mind is developing. To the child we cannot say tomorrow; we must act today.

An Agenda for Action

Translating the global vision of Health for All in the 21st Century requires supportive policies, financial and human resources, and a coherent framework for local action. This includes building on past efforts—learning from failures and successes, strengthening governmental, private organization partnerships and community programs, identifying replicable models with established outcomes, and reducing societal and individual risk factors. It requires multi-sectoral strategic planning and accountability (ethical, financial, programmatic) at all levels (community, national, global).

The 13 th Annual IHMEC Conference to be held in Antigua will provide a forum for exchange of successful practices in the field.

IHMEC is committed to developing practical and targeted actions that improve local and global health, with a particular emphasis on vulnerable and disenfranchised populations. Its strategies include education of students and future leaders, development of faculty skills, promoting collaborative research, and developing effective partnerships between universities in developed and developing countries and between universities and communities.

IHMEC provides resources to member institutions, serves as a forum for the exchange of new information and ideas, and creates a broader understanding of global health issues. Through its membership and network of partners around the world, IHMEC is committed to reducing health inequities and improving the health of individuals around the world.