Closing the global health gaps in a generation - how is it possible?

摘要

In 1948 the UN declared that everyone has the right to the highest attainable level of health. Sixty years after 1948 and 30 years after the Alma Ata Declaration there is a new appeal to the world community. The Commission on Social Determinants of Health calls for a closing of the global and national health gaps in a generation.This, surely, is a formidable task. If it is possible or not depends entirely on whether or not we continue "business as usual" or whether we make a radical break with present social and economic trends, which in many ways are unsustainable. Global life expectancy has increased by more than two decades since the UN declaration of 1948, but the pace of improvement has been slowing down and large segments of the world population are in fact left behind.