|
|
May 17, 2007:
When the annual session of the World Health
Assembly, the supreme decision-making body of the
World Health Organization, begins in Geneva,
Switzerland, Taiwan is again going to try for
membership.
For the past 10 years, Taiwan has been trying to
get observer status at the World Health Assembly.
And, all these past 10 years, China has prevented
Taiwan from gaining that status.
The meeting of the World Health Assembly begins in
Geneva in the third week of May 2007.
Taiwan lost its membership in the World Health
Organization (WHO) in 1972, a year after losing
its United Nations seat to China, which claims
sovereignty over Taiwan. The WHO has rejected
Taiwan’s efforts to get membership ever since.
Chen Shui-bian, President of Taiwan, says the
World Health Organization jeopardized the health
of the people in Taiwan by allowing China to have
the
final say on membership in the health
organization.
Dr Wu Shuh-min, president of the Foundation of
Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan, has told
Voice of America that Taiwan will continue its
campaign to join the World Health Organization.
Taiwan's bid for observer status will come up at
the opening of the annual World Health Assembly.
The Economist magazine had recently rated Taiwan’s
health system as the world’s number two.
Taiwan has made huge strides in the health care
sector, according to Shiing Jer Twu, a former
health minister of Taiwan. From having a Third
World-level health system only decades ago, it has
become a world leader in health care, he says.
According to Shiing Jer Twu, who has led his
country’s battle for recognition at the WHO,
barring Taiwan from cooperating with other
countries on health
matters is unfair not only to Taiwan but also to
other countries.
Taiwan currently records negligible infection
rates of HIV and avian flu, which are prevalent
among its neighbors, Shiing Jer Twu points out.
Over 10,000
Taiwanese travel daily to China, and 30 million
travelers passed through Taiwan in 2006.
BY OUR PHARMA CORRESPONDENT
|
