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Mr Barre,
Mr Josselin,
Mr Queyranne,
Mr Chevallier (representing
the Minister of Health),
Mr Petit,
Mr Mérieux,
Mr Abenayim
Ladies and Gentlemen,
WHO and
France have always been natural partners in the field of health. I am
very pleased the way our collaboration has developed over the past two
years. A very positive and open debate with the French Government, the
City of Lyon and the Mérieux Foundation has led us today to the
opening of the new Lyon Office dedicated to communicable diseases
surveillance and response.
Over the past two years we have seen new attention
given to communicable diseases that cause and perpetuate poverty.
Heads of States and Health Ministers of the world developing countries
have told us about how illness hampers their people’s prospects for
development, and Heads of States agreed to drastically cut the burden
of disease caused by HIV infection, malaria and tuberculosis.
WHO and the rest of the UN system is looking at new
ways of working so that efforts are scaled up quickly and yield
tangible results within the next decade. G8 leaders have committed
themselves to this. I sense an increased unity of purpose for taking
proven interventions up to scale and for ensuring that public goods in
the form of essential drugs and vaccine really reach those who need
them.
This means going new ways: finding new mechanisms
for funding and delivering interventions; being innovative in reducing
risks and prices and develop new drugs and vaccines.
Yet as the battle to control known infectious
diseases continues, new threats have emerged. Increased population
movements, whether through tourism, migration or disasters; the growth
in international trade in food and biological products; the change in
methods of food processing distribution; and the change in consumer
habits, have reaffirmed that infectious disease events in one country
are potentially a concern for the entire world.
WHO is committed to contain the global public
health threat of emerging infectious diseases, epidemics and
drug-resistant infectious agents.
In close partnership with the international public
heath community, WHO gathers information, coordinates international
strategy, and establishes global standards. To do this, we need at
country level technical competence in alert and response mechanisms.
But laboratories in developing countries are often
under equipped and unable to meet the demand for timely and essential
information. WHO supports national capacity building in developing
countries for epidemic alert and response by strengthening laboratory
diagnostic capacities and intervention epidemiology.
That is why we need the Lyon Office. Its task will
be to support national capacity building by providing training in
detection of and response to epidemics. A network of trained
laboratory specialists will thus be able to be built up to work for
national and global health security.
Health security should be everybody's concern. We
in WHO count on public health and scientific institutions as well as
on the private sector and the civil society to develop collaborative
activities, in Lyon, throughout France and abroad. Dr Buriot
mentioned to me the initial steps which have been taken by France
Telecom and the Crédit Agricole Bank here in Lyon to participate
in the development of the activities of the WHO Office. This is
welcome news.
I wish the centre and its staff all the best in
carrying out its important task. My renewed thanks to all of you who
have supported this initiative.
Thank you. |
