May 21 2011
Inter Press Service reports on the possibility that the World Health Assembly "could adopt landmark resolutions asking governments to improve water and sanitation to eradicate cholera and guinea worm," the latter of which exists in only four countries - Ghana, Mali, Ethiopia and Sudan. "While safe drinking water and toilets are the most cost-effective public health measures, they have not been a priority for most developing countries," the news service writes. Approximately 884 million people worldwide do not have access to safe drinking water, and 2.6 billion do not have access to basic sanitation, IPS notes (Agazzi, 5/19).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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