Two important events, the war in Iraq and the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), have hit the headlines recently. Although seemingly independent events, they are both very important public health problems and will have a long term impact on global public health
policy.[1,2]
I would like to thank JDA Barr and JJ Miranda for their special article: "Iraq: Time
to focus our response" and JECH for providing a platform. I
agree - on that point, the role of the medical profession is now more important than ever, even if its involvement with politics is controversial. For some researchers, medicine may be nothing more than finding the cause of disease and method of treatment, but public health is important too. The war in Iraq and outbreak of SARS are good examples.
At first glance these two events may appear very different but they have some important characteristics in common which can help us better understand how we should face these problems in the future.
The war in Iraq is partly due to the impact of the 9/11 terrorism attack on America. The US government missed some clues to prevent this disaster and now President Bush wants to defend the world from grave danger without support.[3] In the case of the outbreak of SARS, China has been criticised for being slow to acknowledge the disease and warn its neighbours [4,5]. But the Chinese Health Minister argued: "As SARS is not on the list stipulated in China's Prevention and Control Law of Epidemics, we have to collect enough information about the appraisal of the epidemic to establish a new epidemic reporting method and regulation".[6] That is to say, the disease is too new to be reported on in the medical literature.
In his book, "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies", Jared Diamond wrote that wars and deadly disease are the ajor risk factors for public health.[7] For the two events discussed here, no-one doubts that the US will win the war in Iraq and also that SARS will be brought under control. But no-one can say that there will be no more wars, terrorism attacks, or fatal disease outbreaks forever. So we should all make an effort and work together to meet these threats and not spend our time censuring each other.
References
(1) WHO health briefing on Iraq. April 7, 2003.
http://www.who.int/features/2003/iraq/briefings/monday7/en/
(2) Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS) April 7, 2003.
http://www.who.int/csr/sars/en/
(3) GW Bush. President Bush Addresses the Nation. March 19, 2003 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030319-17.html
(4) HK braces as
global toll mounts. CNN News. April 7, 2003 http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/04/06/sars.wrap/index.html
(5) T
Crampton. WHO Criticizes China Over Handling of Mystery Disease. Times
News. April 7, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/07/international/asia/07CND-HONG.html
(6) Chinese Health
Minister Zhang Wenkang Met the Press and Answered Questions on SARS. April
3, 2003.http://www.chinaembassy-canada.org/eng/46208.html
(7) Diamond J. Guns, Germs and Steel. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1999.
Two important events, the war in Iraq and the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), have hit the headlines recently. Although seemingly independent events, they are both very important public health problems and will have a long term impact on global public health policy.[1,2]
I would like to thank JDA Barr and JJ Miranda for their special article: "Iraq: Time to focus our response" and JECH for providing a platform. I agree - on that point, the role of the medical profession is now more important than ever, even if its involvement with politics is controversial. For some researchers, medicine may be nothing more than finding the cause of disease and method of treatment, but public health is important too. The war in Iraq and outbreak of SARS are good examples.
At first glance these two events may appear very different but they have some important characteristics in common which can help us better understand how we should face these problems in the future.
The war in Iraq is partly due to the impact of the 9/11 terrorism attack on America. The US government missed some clues to prevent this disaster and now President Bush wants to defend the world from grave danger without support.[3] In the case of the outbreak of SARS, China has been criticised for being slow to acknowledge the disease and warn its neighbours [4,5]. But the Chinese Health Minister argued: "As SARS is not on the list stipulated in China's Prevention and Control Law of Epidemics, we have to collect enough information about the appraisal of the epidemic to establish a new epidemic reporting method and regulation".[6] That is to say, the disease is too new to be reported on in the medical literature.
In his book, "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies", Jared Diamond wrote that wars and deadly disease are the ajor risk factors for public health.[7] For the two events discussed here, no-one doubts that the US will win the war in Iraq and also that SARS will be brought under control. But no-one can say that there will be no more wars, terrorism attacks, or fatal disease outbreaks forever. So we should all make an effort and work together to meet these threats and not spend our time censuring each other.
References
(1) WHO health briefing on Iraq. April 7, 2003. http://www.who.int/features/2003/iraq/briefings/monday7/en/
(2) Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) April 7, 2003. http://www.who.int/csr/sars/en/
(3) GW Bush. President Bush Addresses the Nation. March 19, 2003 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030319-17.html
(4) HK braces as global toll mounts. CNN News. April 7, 2003 http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/04/06/sars.wrap/index.html
(5) T Crampton. WHO Criticizes China Over Handling of Mystery Disease. Times News. April 7, 2003 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/07/international/asia/07CND-HONG.html
(6) Chinese Health Minister Zhang Wenkang Met the Press and Answered Questions on SARS. April 3, 2003.http://www.chinaembassy-canada.org/eng/46208.html
(7) Diamond J. Guns, Germs and Steel. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1999.