Report from the 2007 Pacific Health Summit
June 29 (Friday) 2007
The Pacific Health Summit was held June 12-14 in Seattle. I had been involved with the planning of this summit from the start, and once again participated this year. The summit, now in its third year, has seen participation grow each year and is becoming even more successful as opportunities for information-sharing increase.
Last year a variety of themes, of which overcoming cancer and medical information technology were primary, were discussed at the summit. The focus this year was on pandemics (infectious diseases), and discussion was held from a variety of different angles. The research of cancer and medical information technology holds an extremely important meaning for the progress of medicine. Development of this research, however, will take time: these kinds of problems require patience and diligence.
In comparison, pandemics, as symbolized by the bird influenza, can bring far-reaching damage in a short amount of time. Not only is there the loss of many lives, but the economic blow is also considerable. Within the last couple years, pandemics such as the bird influenza have gone on a global rampage. The global summit, therefore, treated these pandemics as an emergency issue and introduced countermeasures. At least three major points came to light through the summit.
The first point is the need for international cooperation. Pandemics spread quickly and without regards to borders, and because of the inadequacy of information transmission and prevention systems the damage tends to be compounded. As a result of slow economic development, there are many regions that have been left behind in terms of pandemic countermeasures. It is necessary that countries around the world, WTO and etc. cooperate to reinforce these fragile areas.
The second point involves the supply of vaccines. There are no definitive solutions among pandemic countermeasures, but vaccines do hold a degree of effect in limiting the extent of damage. There is a significant mismatch, however, between vaccine manufacturing and supply capabilities on one hand, and the people and regions that need the vaccines on the other. It is necessary to establish cooperation relationships and the kinds of structures that will enable vaccines to be appropriately distributed among those in need.
The third point is regarding information sharing and research development. The first step in creating countermeasures is to quickly and accurately understand the origins and transmission of pandemics. Reporting systems greatly vary among countries and regions. These systems must be organized and consolidated. Moreover, there is an urgent need to grasp the nature of new pandemics, and then conduct research on effective vaccines and other medications or cures for both prevention and treatment.
These points were raised as important issues, and the common thread among them was the need for international cooperation and trust. This year’s Pacific Health Summit was supported by the Bill Gates Foundation as well as many other organizations, of which Fujitsu was one. It was an opportunity to reconfirm the importance of international cooperation as we face an enemy common to all of humankind.