The June edition of Diplomaatia deals with questions related to health. Tiina Intelmann, the Head of the EU Delegation in Liberia, writes about how Ebola has affected the well-being of the country and how it has finally won the battle with the virus. Professor Ilona Kickbusch gives an overview of what kind of action has been taken all over the world to fight Ebola.
“At regular intervals, a global health crisis like the Ebola outbreak in 2014 reminds the world that there is a need to act together because the health of one part of the globe is inextricably linked to the health of another,” she writes. “But the crisis mode rarely turns into long-term action, which requires states to act together consistently for the health of all. This is a threat to the world’s health security.”
Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe, writes about health diplomacy in Europe.
Kristel Lõuk, a diplomat in the Estonian Representation to the UN, writes about the Millennium Development Goals, while Taavo Lumiste, of the Estonian Representation in Geneva, discusses Estonia’s activities in the World Health Organization. Jarno Habicht, Head of the WHO Country Office in Moldova, and Marge Reinap, Head of its representation in Estonia, give an overview of the WHO’s network around the world and how important it is in using the experience gained in one country in another.
Ain Aaviksoo, Under-Secretary at the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs, is convinced that the introduction of so-called e-health is a revolution, since it allows patients to get involved in their treatment more than ever before. Professor Andres Metspalu writes about the Estonian Gene Pool, and Doctor Kuulo Kutsar about the importance of fighting infections around the world.
Srikanth Reddy, Visiting Fellow at the Global Health Programme of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, writes about the devastation caused by the Spanish flu outbreak after World War One. “The 1918 flu pandemic, also known as ‘Spanish flu’ or ‘La Grippe’, was caused by H1N1 influenza A virus and infected 500 million people across the world, including remote Pacific islands and the Arctic. Among those infected, an estimated 50 to 100 million were killed—three to five percent of the world’s population at that time, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history,” he says.
This article was published in ICDS Diplomaatia magazine.