The World Health Organization (WHO) is urging pharmaceutical companies for assistance in helping poorer countries prepare for the H1N1 flu. This comes in the midst of the 62nd World Health Assembly in Geneva where health ministers from around the world are meeting. Less wealthy countries don’t have the necessary pharmaceutical resources needed to effectively combat the virus. More importantly, the opportunity to prevent further spread of the epidemic is ripe since the H1N1 flu has not reached most developing countries. Currently, only 6 out of 30 major drug companies have agreed to donate and/or reduce vaccine costs to poorer countries. This has prompted UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, to call for solidarity among the world’s countries. Solidarity, said Ban, “must mean that all have access to drugs and vaccines.”
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Tags: Ban Ki-moon, flu, H1N1, influenza, pharmaceuticals, Swine flu, vaccine, WHO
Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.