2012
15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH)
Towards a Tobacco-Free World, Planning Globally, Acting Locally
WHO Kobe Centre (WKC) held a pre-conference workshop, “Making your city smoke-free - 12 steps to an effective smoke-free legislation”, at the 15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health 2012 in Singapore. The workshop was especially targeted at city-level policy-makers and tobacco control advocates. Tools to guide cities in making their cities smoke-free, developed by WKC and WHO Tobacco Free Initiative, were introduced. In addition, two guest speakers shared smoke-free experiences of Liverpool and Mexico City.
WKC Workshop Agenda:
Presentations:
WHO participates in UNEP Seminar on Tohoku Tsunami Debris Management
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) held a seminar on the “Management of Debris Created by the Tohoku Tsunami” on 6 March at the UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC) in Osaka.
The seminar featured video highlights of the experts mission to Tohoku and the presentation of the key findings of the group of international experts that visited the Tohoku region to study debris management post tsunami. The team was organized by UNEP in response to the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
WHO was represented by the WKC Director Alex Ross and technical officers Jaz Lapitan and Art Pesigan. The WHO team took special interest in the aspect of hazardous wastes in the debris and also the protection of the response workers, the debris handlers and the community from health hazards of the debris. In collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UNEP will be releasing a video and a report containing key successful initiatives and technologies deployed in Japan for wider distribution internationally.
Safe Health Facilities and Preparedness for Mass Casualties
19 February 2012 marked the second time that the WHO Kobe Centre (WKC) and the University of Hyogo, Research Institute of Nursing Care for People and Community (RINCPC) organized a public health event at Akashi City. The first time was for a WKC Forum entitled “Strengthening disaster resilience: individual, group and community” held on 20 November 2011.
Attended by 80 participants from Bangladesh, Israel, Japan, Philippines, Thailand and USA, the University of Hyogo Seminar entitled “How do we make our hospital prepared for any disaster?” was moderated by Dr Aiko Yamamoto, Executive Director and Professor, RINCPC. The President of the University of Hyogo, Dr Masayoshi Kiyohara, welcomed the participants. He congratulated the University of Hyogo, College of Nursing, for being one of five nursing schools in Japan leading curriculum development on disaster nursing with an international perspective; and wished early on for a successful seminar.
Mr Alex Ross, Director, WKC, delivered WHO’s opening address. He remarked that the RINCPC is a very special place. As a WHO Collaborating Centre (WCC) for Nursing in Disasters and Health Emergency Management, it is the only such collaborating centre in the world on this topic, out of 800 collaborating centres worldwide, all of which are based in universities or in government institutions. Mr Ross expressed his pride of WKC’s association with the University of Hyogo and its WCC highlighting the role being played by nurses as first responders during emergencies – whether clinic-based or community-based.
The seminar’s first speaker was Dr Arturo Pesigan, Technical Officer, WKC, who spoke on “Making Hospitals Safer in Emergencies and Disasters”. Dr Pesigan shared images of a hospital in the Philippines before and after flash floods in 2009 due to Typhoon Ketsana which also devastated health facilities in Lao PDR and Viet Nam. He explained the historical background contributed by lessons learned from the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake and other disasters, the Hyogo Framework for Action, the World Disaster Reduction Campaign on safe schools and hospitals and the current work on disaster risk reduction in health facilities. He mentioned about a case study (integrating structural, non-structural and functional elements) on Kobe Red Cross Hospital and Kobe University Hospital conducted by WKC in 2007. He reiterated that “supporting hospitals and health facilities to make them safe in health emergencies involves everyone”.
Dr Hanna Admi, Director of Nursing, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel tackled “Mass Casualty Preparedness” in the second presentation. Dr Admi contextualized her inputs by showing at first video footages of the world’s most recent emergencies and disasters that struck Haiti, Chile, New Zealand, Japan and the Philippines. She appreciated the spirit of resilience of the predominantly Japanese audience with reference to the Great East Japan Earthquake of 11 March 2011. She narrated her first hand experience when Rambam Hospital became a “hospital under fire” in 2006.
Dr Admi cited the required preparedness of both pre-hospital and hospital settings. She showed several short films (some real and some simulated) stressing the need to prepare for any mass casualty incident originating from biological, toxicological, natural and/or radiological hazards. She raised awareness on the need to distinguish the difference and application of guidelines from standing orders and protocols and from checklists. At the end of her presentation, she hoped that the participants learned and would be better prepared to face and manage mass casualty incidents.
The University of Hyogo seminar had an open forum after the two presentations. Questions asked revolved around the seemingly limited role of nurses during emergencies and disasters. Both speakers believed though that nurses can and are playing their important roles as in fact some nurses are acting as hospital emergency management coordinators. Yet the situation in some settings can still be improved and multiple approaches can be used for change into an envisioned set-up.
In closing, Dr Yamamoto expressed her gratitude to all participants for their presence and enthusiasm. In responding to the question posed by the seminar: “How do we make our hospital prepared for any disaster?”, she said that a truly caring humanity would ensure preparedness.
Harnessing community participation on urban health
“What I gathered while listening intently on WHO Kobe Centre’s (WKC) orientation of its pillars was the prime importance of harnessing and supporting community participation with government support, especially in the urban context where I think the sense of community spirit is affected by the urban infrastructure”, expressed Dr Hirofumi Ando , the President of the Asian Urban Information Center of Kobe (AUICK).
Dr Ando, AUICK staff and representatives from four AUICK associate cities (Chennai, India; Surabaya, Indonesia; Olongapo, Philippines and Danang (Vietnam) had a 2-hour site visit at WKC, Kobe, Japan on 14 February 2012 as part of AUICK 2012 Preliminary Action Plan Dissemination Meeting. The objectives of the site visit were to: 1) orient participants on the mandate and activities of WKC; 2) discuss principles of urban health emergency management; 3) present tips on planning for preparedness and response to urban health emergencies; and 4) provide inputs on WHO programme on reproductive health (adolescent reproductive health and HIV/AIDS).
Mr Alex Ross, the Director of WKC, welcomed meeting delegates with sincere appreciation of current and future synergistic working relationship between WKC and AUICK. Next, Mr Amit Prasad, Technical Officer, WKC, introduced the area of work on urban health metrics with inputs on Urban Health Equity Assessment and Response Tool (Urban HEART) and the need for multi-stakeholder engagement; the urban health observatory; and global-national-local work on ageing and health issues. This was followed by a presentation on urban health governance by Mr Loic Garçon, Technical Officer, WKC with inputs on the 2010 “Kobe Call to Action”, smoke-free cities (12 steps to make your city smoke-free), intersectoral action on health and healthy urban planning.
Dr Arturo Pesigan, Technical Officer, WKC, highlighted urbanization as a driving force on health and development as well as on emergencies and disasters. He explained the persistent dichotomy of myths and realities in disaster situations. For example, it is a myth that “epidemics and plagues are inevitable after every disaster”. The reality is that “epidemics do not spontaneously occur after a disaster and dead bodies will not lead to catastrophic outbreaks of exotic diseases. The key to preventing disease is to improve sanitary conditions and educate the public”. http://www.who.int/hac/techguidance/ems/myths/en/. He provided tips on how to make cities resilient to emergencies and disasters.
The WKC orientation was completed with the presentation of Dr Jostacio M. Lapitan, Technical Officer, WKC, who provided an overview of adolescent sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS – a topic requested by AUICK. Dr Lapitan highlighted that: 1) one in five individuals in the world today is an adolescent; 2) young people are leading the HIV prevention revolution; and 3) there is a compelling need to strengthen the evidence base for action and to apply the evidence-based interventions at scale - globally-locally.
Answers given to the question on how to strengthen the evidence base for action on adolescent reproductive health in order to reveal not only the tip of the iceberg were: 1) to work for zero discrimination aligning to the call of World AIDS Day 2011 “getting to zero”; 2) to facilitate effective and sustained communication with adolescents; and 3) to obtain the felt issues, needs and solutions from adolescents themselves which can be incorporated into the city plans.
In closing, Mr Ross expressed his thanks to all meeting delegates and on behalf of AUICK, Dr Dharani from the Corporation of Chennai, India, likewise expressed her gratitude for the warm welcome, the site visit and informative-lively WKC orientation.
1: Dr Hirofumi Ando is currently a member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group, Department of Reproductive Health and Research, WHO HQ and former Deputy Executive Director, UNFPA. Mr Tatsuo Yada, Mayor of Kobe City, is the Chairman of AUICK.
WHO Executive Board closes with Japan resolution on ageing
Starting a year-long special focus on ageing and health, the Executive Board adopted a resolution calling for countries to promote ‘active ageing’ and establish measures that encourage healthy living throughout the many stages of life.
The resolution, proposed by Japan, calls for the strengthening of policies that can prevent noncommunicable diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory disease, which often present themselves in later life. A series of activities is planned by the WHO Kobe Centre in 2012 to promote ageing, the theme of this year's World Health Day.