Some call for more action at conclusion of Pacific Health Summit

Jun 21 2009

Some Pacific Health Summit attendees said more action should have come from the tuberculosis-focused conference, which ended on Thursday in Seattle, Seattle Times' "Business of Giving" blog reports.

Paula Akugizibwe, regional treatment advocacy coordinator for the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa, said, "The gap between rhetoric and reality grows bigger and bigger," adding that she does not intend to attend anymore global health conferences, where people say the same things, then jet off to another conference and repeat the process.

"Krista Dong, who works with TB and AIDS patients in South Africa, said the conference was too focused on technology, like new drugs and vaccines and quicker ways to diagnose tuberculosis," the Seattle Times writes. She said that even if those things were available today, clinics and hospitals in Africa couldn't use them and that most medical workers lack even basic tools, like face masks to prevent the spread of TB.

Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow at the Council on Global Relations, called on the Health 8, which meets on Friday in Seattle, to take specific steps to help people who have TB (Doughton, "Business of Giving"/Seattle Times, 6/18).