Journal of Humanitarian Medicine - vol. VI - n. 2 - April/June 2006

BOOK REVIEWS

Published by the World health organization

THE WORLD HEALTH REPORT 2006
Working together for health over 10 years
2006, 240 pages – ISBN 92 4 156317 6
Sw. fr. 40.00/US$ 36.00
In developing countries: Sw. fr 20.00/US$ 18.00

The World Health Report 2006 contains both an expert assessment of the current crisis in the global health workforce and an ambitious set of proposals to tackle it over the next ten years, starting immediately.
Today’s crisis is a binding constraint to health improvement in almost 60 countries globally. A shortage estimated at almost 4.3 million doctors, midwives, nurses and support workers worldwide is most severe in the poorest countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where they are most needed. Poor working conditions, high rates of attrition due to illness and migration, and education systems that are unable to pick up the slack reflect the depth of the challenges in these crisis countries.
About 59 million people make up the global health workforce. One in every three of these is employed in the Americas - mostly in the USA and Canada - where more than half the world’s financial resources for health are to be found. However, only four in every hundred health workers are in sub-Saharan Africa, which has a quarter of the global burden of disease, and less than one per cent of the world’s financial resources.
This report shows how a better balance can be found. By actively planning around the working lifespan of a worker from entry to health training, to job recruitment through to retirement, a broad set of policies options emerge that can all make a discrete contribution to improving the performance of the health workforce. All countries can enhance workforce productivity immediately but they must also begin to anticipate what lies ahead and acquire the necessary institutional capacity to lead, manage and regulate the health workforce.
National leadership can be supported by global solidarity that facilitates public goods like common technical frameworks and priority research as well as cooperative agreements on migration and the mobilization of the international workforce in response to health emergencies. Support to countries in profound crisis requires urgent coordination and commitment from international partners to invest directly in the health workforce now and into the longer-term. This report lays out a ten-year action plan in which countries can build their health workforces and strengthen their health system with the support of global partners - working together for health.
A strong and vital health workforce is an investment in health for today and the future. The ultimate goal is a workforce that can guarantee universal access to health care to all citizens in every country. This report is essential reading for everyone who shares that ambition.

COMMUNICABLE DISEASE CONTROL IN EMERGENCIES
A Field Manual
World Health Organization, 2005, 295 pages [English]
ISBN 92 4 154616 6 - Sw. fr. 40.00/US$ 36.00
In developing countries: Sw. fr. 28.00/US$ 25.20

Communicable diseases are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in emergencies. Populations affected by conflict or natural disasters are at higher risk of these diseases due to a number of factors including displacement, relocation in temporary settlements, collapsed health services, and water and food shortages.
The Communicable Diseases in Emergencies field manual provides practical guidance to public health professionals working in emergencies on the prevention and control of communicable diseases in these settings. It provides a systematic approach to the planning, implementation and monitoring of disease control activities which are key components of effective humanitarian response.
This small but valuable field manual is the result of collaboration among a number of WHO departments and several external partner agencies in reviewing existing guidelines on communicable disease control and adapting them to emergency situations.
The manual will provide a useful tool to control disease and protect the health of varying emergency-affected populations. The Gunn Multilingual Dictionary of Disaster Medicine could be used to advantage in reducing the additional language emergency in such crisis situations.

THE CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION: IMPLEMENTATION, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Edited by Ramesh Thakur and Ere Haru
ISBN 92 808 1123 1 - 200 pages - US$ 30.00
United Nations - University Press

The most complex and comprehensive disarmament treaty ever to be adopted, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is intended to provide robust assurance that chemical weapons will not be developed, produced, stockpiled, used or transferred. To implement and enforce the CWC and verify the ongoing elimination of declared chemical weapons production capacity and stockpiles, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) inspects military and industrial sites in dozens of countries.
OPCW membership now embraces over 95 per cent of the world’s population and 98 per cent of the relevant global chemicals industry.
This book provides an in-depth explanation of the notable achievements of the CWC in a relatively short span since 1997, and examines the issues that must be addressed to ensure the regime’s continuing vitality in the context of dynamic changes in the security environment, and in science, industry and technology.
“Outstanding quality, easy to read, informative and authoritative. A unique and important book. More than that: the authors are, in several cases, practitioners expert in problems of CWC implementation, meaning that they speak with unrivalled authority.”
Prof. J. P. Perry Robinson, University of Sussex, U.K.
Ramesh Thakur is Senior Vice-Rector of the United Nations University (Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations), Tokyo, Japan. Ere Haru is Head, Training and Staff Development Branch, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, The Hague, The Netherlands.

Serious Childhood Problems in Countries with Limited Resources
Background book on Management of the
Child with a Serious Infection or Severe Malnutrition
World Health Organization
2004, v + 65 pages [English]
Sw. fr. 20.00/US $ 18.00
In developing countries: Sw. fr. 10.00
Order no. 11500580 WHO, Geneva
ISBN 92 4 156269 2

This is part of a series of documents and tools supporting the IMCI (Integrated Management of Childhood Illness) strategy that has been prepared as a companion to the WHO manual entitled Management of the Child with a Serious Infection or Severe Malnutrition: Guidelines for Care at the First-Referral Level in Developing Countries
This book is aimed at medical, nursing and other healthcare students, and presents a summary of the technical background and the evidence-base underlying the clinical guidelines.
For treatment recommendations, the companion manual should be consulted. The book should also be useful for teachers of undergraduates in paediatrics and child health and for workers in child health as part of their initial training or continuing professional development in medical and nursing schools.
It focuses on the major causes of childhood mortality dealing with disease definition, burden of disease, aetiology, pathophysiology, clinical features, and management. In addition, it summarizes the evidence linking these factors to a good/poor outcome and the evidence that intervention can control the factors and/or improve the outcome.

Medical Biotechnology
Achievements, Prospects and Perceptions
By Albert Sasson
United Nations University Press
Tokyo – New York - Paris

For many people, biotechnology means genetically modified organisms, alien species, toxic weapons, or hormone-treated beef. Yet it is also a tool to control plant and animal pests, preserve species, utilize genetic resources for health and nutrition, and protect the environment. Society’s ability to manage, share and regulate advanced biotechnology offers many opportunities and raises many challenges and risks.
This book explores the issues of advanced biotechnology and examines the progress made in recent years. It looks at the drivers of medical and pharmaceutical biotechnology development in the United States, the European Union and Japan. It describes the biotechnology tools to fight major global health concerns such as Ebola fever, the human immunodeficiency virus, the SARS virus, and the Avian flu virus, as well as regulatory concerns and public perceptions.
Professor Sasson also provides a state of the art analysis of the progress of selected developing countries in fostering their own bio-industries. He examines some of the most controversial areas of medical biotechnology including issues such as stem cell research and gene therapy and some of the ethical issues they raise.
The findings of this book are a valuable contribution to the state of our knowledge about modern biotechnology, to UNU-IAS efforts to raise awareness among policy makers and stakeholders, and to educating the public at large about the greater implications and prospects concerning the advances of this rapidly growing new technology.

Social Determinants of Health.
The Solid Facts
Second Edition
Edited by Richard Wilkinson and Michael Marmot
WHO Regional Office for Europe
2003, 31 pages (available in English; French,
German and Russian editions in preparation)
Sw. fr. 15/US $ 13.50
In developing countries: Sw. fr. 10.50
Order No. 1342046 from WHO Geneva
ISBN 92 890 1371 0

Poorer people live shorter lives and are more often ill than the rich. This disparity has drawn attention to the remarkable sensitivity of health to the social environment.
This publication examines this social gradient in health, and explains how psychological and social influences affect physical health and longevity. It then looks at what is known about the most important social determinants of health today, and the role that public policy can play in shaping a social environment that is more conducive to better health.
This second edition relies on the most up-to-date sources in its selection and description of the main social determinants of health in our society today.
Key research sources are given for each: stress, early life, social exclusion, working conditions, unemployment, social support, addiction, healthy food, and transport policy.
Policy and action for health need to address the social determinants of health, attacking the causes of ill health before they can lead to problems. This is a challenging task for both decision-makers and public health actors and advocates. This publication provides the facts and the policy options that will enable them to act.