Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - November 20, 2004
That was the theme of a statement released by health leaders from more than 75 countries at the end of a summit in Mexico's capital on Saturday.
The meeting, whose attendees included 29 ministers of health from nations in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, sought to determine ways to better urge public and private sector researchers to focus their efforts on the most-deadly and harmful diseases.
It also aimed to determine the best way to get vaccines, prescription medications and technologies that already exist to the sick around the globe who need them most.
In their closing statement, the summit's participants challenged the world's governments to better research their own health care systems, thus answering questions about how to get existing remedies to those who continue to die from preventable illnesses.
It called on those who fund public health initiatives -- including private foundations as well as governments -- to devote more money for research into study of individual health systems. It also directed the World Health Organization, which co-sponsored the summit, to coordinate governmental efforts to communicate what is learned from increased health systems research to the international community.
In addition, the 10-point statement urged governments to put public health decisions in the hands of better-informed officials who are able to work with leaders on a community level to more efficiently implement the findings of new research.
An international database containing all information about clinical trials of medications and other remedies before the results of those studies are published in scientific journals or books is also a top priority, it said.
Held in conjunction with the ministerial health summit was the eighth annual meeting of the Global Forum for Health Research, which brought together 700 leaders from government and non-governmental organizations, or NGOs.
In its closing statement, the forum called for more research into child health problems, but said that simply targeting HIV and AIDS as well as malaria for more study would not slow increased death rates from those illnesses in the developing world.
Instead, it too called for focusing more attention on health systems research, saying questions about access to care and inequalities could be answered only by countries with true understandings of the full scope of health problems they face.
"The public and private sectors, governments of developed and developing countries, research institutions, multilateral agencies, NGOs and civil society must commit themselves to the shared responsibility of advancing the volume and pace of health research that is focused on improving the life-span and health of people everywhere," the form's statement said.
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