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Colleagues,
Welcome to the World Health Organization. I am
grateful to you for attending this meeting. We have high hopes of you.
We are all pursuing the same goal. We want to see a
big reduction in the unacceptably high morbidity and mortality caused
by annual influenza epidemics. I hope that by the time you leave,
tomorrow, you will have debated and prepared recommendations for the
first Global Agenda on Influenza Prevention and Control. This Agenda
should set out priority activities that must be undertaken to reduce
influenza-related suffering. It will help the international community
prepare for the next pandemic.
The Global Agenda has relevance beyond the World
Health Organization. It should provide guidance on best practice to
all parties with a stake in influenza activities – for research and
development, for national and global surveillance, and for control
measures. The Agenda should help those involved in advocacy and fund
raising at national and international levels. With your guidance, it
can also be a tool to support coordination for regional and global
influenza control actions.
I know that most of you have been involved in the
preparation of the draft Agenda over the past year. You know that we
issued a worldwide call for proposals in June 2001. The result was
overwhelming. We received more than 100 contributions from you and
other influenza experts. This is a tremendous effort.
Colleagues,
You participate in this meeting as experts. We rely
on your scientific and professional expertise - particularly your
knowledge about influenza, and about national and international
approaches to communicable disease surveillance and control. You
represent a wide range of technical, administrative and managerial
expertise and come from the public and private sector. Your expertise
will make possible the authoritative synthesis of evidence, the
building of a science-based consensus, and the development of valid
action plans.
Your work these two days will help WHO to sharpen
the work of its Global Influenza Programme, improving the links
between actions for influenza surveillance and for influenza control.
More than 250 million vaccine doses are produced
annually with the influenza strains WHO recommends and makes available
to the pharmaceutical industry. Global influenza surveillance and
evidence-based recommendations on vaccine content will remain the
cornerstone of the Programme's work.
We know that the level of national and
international pandemic preparedness is far from satisfactory. And we
know that the next influenza pandemic is inevitable.
We are working on better plans for preparedness. We
believe they should include guidance on the use of influenza vaccines
and antivirals in handling influenza. We need your collaboration and
feed-back as we consider how to take forward these preparedness plans
before we submit them to our governing bodies.
Colleagues,
We also know that it is very difficult for
countries to defend themselves against imported airborne pathogens.
Yet most of the influenza Vaccine is to be found in the richer world.
There is an acute need for this vaccine in developing countries.
To take forward the global influenza control effort
there is a need for up to date knowledge on the burden of influenza
illness, the availability of affordable vaccine and current prevention
and control policies within developing countries.
WHO is ready to play a critical part in addressing
these issues. We will focus on what we do best, seeking our partners
who can take on other functions. We will keep a sharp eye on financial
implications. We know that we must step up our efforts in some areas -
such as data on the influenza burden in developing countries, better
pandemic preparedness plans, and strategies for expanding vaccine
usage.
I anticipate that WHO will pull together a plan of
action and a long-term strategic plan on Global Influenza Surveillance
and Control by the end of this year. The Global Agenda on Influenza
will certainly be an important document in the preparation of this
strategic plan.
The programme to confront Influenza is WHO's
oldest. It continues to be much in need. It has shown an ability to
deliver results - supporting the multitude of activities implemented
by many partners involved in influenza control and surveillance. But
more must be done by all of us, working together.
A Global Agenda on Influenza Prevention and Control
will bring us all one step closer to our goals of a healthy, more
prosperous and secure world.
Thank you again for participating in this meeting. I look forward
to the outcome.
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