Humanity is in a permanent crisis of pandemics, climate change and wars. “This is our new normal,” Hans Kluge, director of Europe at the World Health Organization (WHO), told the European Health Forum Gastein on Tuesday. That calls for new answers. “We urgently need to strengthen our health systems,” he said. Finance ministers should view the ongoing crisis as a nuclear threat and double the budget for health workers.
Europe has been hit by various crises for more than a century. However, these have increased recently, Kluge referring to severe storms, periods of heat and drought due to global warming, the coronavirus pandemic and the spread of monkey pox and, last but not least, the war in Ukraine.
Old problems like cancer, alcohol and obesity
Not to be forgotten, according to Kluge, are non-communicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, the consequences of alcohol and tobacco use and the “obesity pandemic”, the WHO expert said at a press conference in Bad Hofgastein. “The corona pandemic is the most serious health crisis of our generation, but not the deadliest,” Kluge emphasized.
One in four children in the WHO European Region is overweight or obese. There is also “no harmless amount of alcohol,” Kluge warned of the health consequences of poor diet and drug use. The hunger problem has also increased worldwide during the Corona crisis, reports Abigail Perry, head of nutrition at the World Food Program. More aid is needed, but also a fairer food system.
“Towards a real European Health Union”
“We are helping EU Member States towards a genuine European Health Union,” said Nathalie Berger, head of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Structural Reforms. This concerns, for example, accelerating the energy transition through the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine and aiding the integration of refugees into the labor market.
EU states also received assistance in setting up cancer screening programs and telemedicine infrastructure, as did Austria and France, for example, support “for sustainable solutions to antibiotic shortages,” Berger reported. Austria, Belgium and Slovakia also operate at a focal point in the sense of a European Health Union, the “EU Health Resource Hub”, which aims to help all Member States reform their health systems. “One of the biggest lessons from the pandemic: strong national health systems are needed,” Berger emphasized.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
