International Public Health: Health for All Movement

In 1977, the World Health Assembly adopted the historic resolution on 'Health for All by the Year 2000'. Several debates on the links between health and social, environmental, economical, political factors yielded this fruitful result.

'Health for All by the Year 2000' meant that, by the year 2000, people would use better approaches than they had before for preventing and controlling diseases and alleviating unavoidable illness and disability. People will attain level of health that will permit them to lead a socially and economically productive life through organized application of local, state, national, and international resources of health.

While almost all the countries aimed at the universal goal for Health for All movement, they also realized that the gap was widening between the health 'haves' in the affluent countries and the 'have-nots' in the developing countries. Thus, the obstacles in closing such wide gaps in the health status and resources were clearly recognized by the world community at the international conference jointly organized by WHO and UNICEF, at Alma-Ata in the then USSR, on September, 1978. This conference was another landmark in public health development and signaled a new era of public health.

Developing countries saw the Alma-Ata primary health care conference as an opportunity for restructuring their health systems to reach the goal of Health for All by 2000. A series of innovative approaches aimed at interesting Primary health Care were organized. there was considerable recognition of comprehensive health system in most of the developing countries.

But debates began either or not to favor for comprehensive primary health care approach. Later resources constraints and external pressure forced the government to be more selective in health development.

Democracy in developing countries aroused devolution of authority to local bodies. However, it was proving economically impossible to bear the cost of extension and expansion of public sector health services to the entire population.

But then, large-scale use of health volunteers, after receiving a minimal training program, proved successful in many countries.

Another notable program was the expanded program on immunization (EPI). In 1980, following a historic global campaign of surveillance and vaccination, the World Health Assembly declared smallpox eradication - the only infectious disease to achieve this distinction. With this inspiration, the WHO/UNICEF promoted the EPI program for six main vaccine-preventable diseases: polio, measles, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, tuberculosis. As a result, the lives of approximately two million children were saved. The outstanding coverage was possible because of improvements in the production, transport, and storage of vaccines, and also by extended social mobilization efforts.