Schedule for the Global Health Council Annual Conference May 28: 'Our Future on Common Ground: Health and the Environment' 5/28/2003
From: Lynnette Johnson Williams of the Global Health Council, 202-439-5681 (cell phone at conference), ljohnsonwilliams@globalhealth.org http://www.globalhealth.org News Advisory: WHAT: World health leaders and nearly 2,000 conference participants from more than 60 nations gather for the 30th Global Health Council annual international conference, May 27-30, 2003, at the Omni-Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert St NW, Washington, DC 20008. Participants in the four-day conference (healthcare providers, community organizers, program managers, policy makers, researchers, and advocates from around the world) will address the key issues affecting the physical, social and economic environmental factors that pose health risks in the world. For more information on the schedule of events at the conference, visit the Council's website at http://www.globalhealth.org/view_top.php3?id(equal)213. 9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Regency Ballroom PLENARY SESSION: "Making the Connections - Improving Health and the Environment through Systemic Strategies." Human health and the natural environment are part of an inextricably woven system of case and effect. The degradation and overuse of natural resources have particular effect on children's and women's health. The steady increase in global temperatures has implications for the spread of infectious diseases. AIDS, drought and famine exist in a circular pattern of crisis where lines of cause and effect begin to blur. How can we create fresh strategies that acknowledge and incorporate the connections and interdependencies that influence health and the environment? Speakers: -- Nils Daulaire, MD, MPH, president and CEO, Global Health Council; -- Thais Corral, executive director/founder of Brazil's REDEH, the Network for Human Development (conference co-chair); -- Paul Epstein, MD, MPH, Associate Director of the Center for Global health and the Environment; -- Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa 4 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Regency Ballroom PLENARY SESSION: "Health and the Elements - Anticipating Hazards in our Water and Air." An anonymous quotation states: "millions have lived without love, but none have lived without water." The same can be said of air, yet these two essential elements of life often prove to be instruments of disease where clean supplies are insufficient. Each year, six million people die and tens of millions more suffer serious illness from a combination of water-related diseases, indoor air pollution and urban air pollution. What is the state of current research; what efforts are underway to effect change; and what are the prospects for the future? Moderator: Margaret Catley-Carlson, chair, Global Water Partnership, formerly Director of the Canadian International Development Agency (conference co-chair). Speakers: -- Mike Muller, director-general of Water Affairs and Forestry, South Africa -- Margaret Mwangola, executive director, Kenya Water for Health organization (KWAHO) -- Nigel Bruce, University of Liverpool and WHO consultant PANELS: The conference will offer more than 40 panel sessions in the following interest areas: Physical Environment and Health: Industrialization and Development; Infectious Disease; Reproductive and Maternal Health; Health Systems Policy and Research; Physical Environment and Health: Underdevelopment; HIV/AIDS; Social Environment and Health: Economics and Governance; and Child/Adolescent Health. Visit http://www.globalhealth.org/view_top.php3?id(equal)213 for individual panel and plenary descriptions for times and locations. ------ The Global Health Council is the world's largest membership alliance dedicated to saving lives by improving health throughout the world. The Council serves and represents thousands of public health professionals from 103 countries on six continents. |