WHO vows to eradicate leprosy by year 2000.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has committed itself to the eradication of leprosy as a public health problem by the year 2000. Some 1,000 delegates from 166 WHO members States at the forty-fourth World Health Assembly 6- 16 May, Geneva) urged increased multi-drug therapy and case-finding activities in the 93 nations where leprosy is endemic.

Two thirds of all registered leprosy cases in the world are in Africa. Countries with a significant population of registered leprosy patients include India, Brazil, Nigeria, Myanmar and Indonesia, but the severe social stigma attached to the disease has created a large pool of unreported cases worldwide.

Noting severe cholera epidemics in Peru and other Latin American countries, the Assembly asked for a coordinated global effort to control the disease. Countries were urged to report immediately any cases of cholera. As of 14 June, 1,726 cholera deaths had been reported in Peru.

The Assembly adopted 43 resolutions on issues ranging from prevention of child mortality due to pneumonia and accelerated research and development of children's vaccines to increased efforts against tuberculosis, Guinea worm disease and smoking in enclosed public places and public transport.

In a resolution on the health situation of displaced persons in Iraq and neighbouring countries, the Assembly asked WHO to help affected countries set up "effective epidemiological surveillance of communicable diseases" and to assist them in keeping those diseases under control.

Other issues discussed included the urban health crisis, the crucial role of women in health and development, and the continuing spread of AIDS.

Only through a new "peopleoriented" approach can WHO'S goal of "Health For All" by the year 2000 and beyond be attained, Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, WHO Director-General, told the Assembly on 7 May. "We must humanize our approach to health development-a process that begins and ends with the people themselves." To improve health everywhere

The World Health Assembly resolutions spelled out specific action that could be taken to improve health everywhere.

Acute respiratory infections, especially pneumonia, kill 4 million children under the age mi of five each year, the Assembly stated. It asked for the development of methods of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of pneumonia in children, including antibiotics at an affordable cost.

It also urged the development of new vaccines against bacterial meningitis, acute respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, viral hepatitis, dengue, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases.

From 1950 to 1990, the world's urban population had more than tripled from 734 million to 2.39 billion. Most increases were in cities of developing countries whose populations increased fivefold since 1950 to 1.5 billion in 1990. Citing these statistics, the Assembly urged member States to prevent excessive urban population growth.

Reproductive health should be promoted, including family planning and safe motherhood. Action to improve female literacy and women's income-generating opportunities should be part of women's health programmes, the Assembly said. WHO was asked to intensify its advocacy role in this area by ensuring that women's health and development goals would be integrated in all its programmes.

In other resolutions adopted, the Assembly endorsed WHO'S Guiding Principles on Human Organ Transplantation and asked the Director-General to collaborate with the International Civil Aviation Organization and other agencies to develop guidelines for a smoke-free travel environment. Smoking, it noted, is estimated to have been responsible for some 3 million deaths in 1990.