6th World WONCA Rural Health Conference

[Guest guest]

Hi folks greeting from Belfast - thought some of you (if you haven't already heard about it) might be interested in the WONCA - Rural Health Conference to be held in Santiago de Compostela next month - see details below - una

Una Lynch

Lecturer (Public Health)Research & Graduate StudiesSchool of Nursing & MidwiferyQueen's University Belfast50 Elmwood AvenueBelfastBT9 6AZ+28 90272377048 90272377 (RoI)WWW: http://www.qub.ac.uk/nur

6th World WONCA Rural Health ConferenceSantiago de Compostela, Spain24th-27th September 2003www.ruralwonca2003.net Bulletin 10 Five weeks to go! And yet more to tell you about the conference! >From the inception of the World Conferences on Rural Health in Shanghai in1996, a key outcome of each conference has been a contribution to thedevelopment of rural health policy around the world. Delegates at thisConference will also have the opportunity to contribute to a review andupdate of the present WONCA Policy on Rural Practice and Rural Health, andto contribute to the development of an "Emerging Themes" agenda. There has been a tradition at all WONCA Rural Conferences to develop apolicy statement or declaration. The 4 previous statements/declarations are· The Durban Declaration (1997)· The Kuching Statement (1999)· The Calgary Commitment (2000)· The Melbourne Manifesto (2002)All are available on the WONCA Website and we invite you to familiariseyourselves with the policies, reports, statements and declarations on thesite.(<http://www.globalfamilydoctor.com/aboutWonca/working_groups/rural_training/wonca_ruralprac.htm>) During the conference sessions, chairs will be asked to monitor and recordthe presentations and the debate that arises. All the identified issueswill be collected by the conference office and a small working group hasbeen established to monitor the contributions. They will also collectmessages posted on the "Conference Wall" in the plaza section of theconference. Delegates will be encouraged to post comments and issues on thewall! The group will produce a short report, which will be delivered at theclosing ceremony. Those of us moving on to Portugal for the satellitesession will debate these issues further in small groups. We hope todevelop a final publication outlining the emerging themes in rural healththat will be addressed over the next few years by the Working Party onRural Practice and Rural Health.Christian Cruger from Denmark has kindly agreed to chair this workinggroup. London (New Zealand) and Tarun Sen Gupta (Australia) haveagreed to join the group and we are awaiting responses from othercolleagues from Europe, North America and Africa.The role played by Chairpersons at the conference sessions will critical toan effective exchange of ideas, knowledge and skills between presenters anddelegates.The conference is also revisiting the 4 previous statements/declaration infour Core Workshops. We hope that these Core Workshops will assess theprogress achieved to date, ensure that they still remain relevant and drawup an action plan for the future.We are not intending to develop a new statement at Santiago but hope to usethe conference as an opportunity to re-evaluate our mission, reaffirm ourcommitment and develop a programme for the future that will benefit ruralcommunities around the world. We have put together a stimulating number of workshops which we hope youwill enjoy. One of the problems at conferences such as ours is that youcannot attend all the sessions. We hope that the "Emerging Themes" Agendawill however ensure that the important issues identified in the conferencewill be disseminated and discussed widely. Examples of the proposed workshops include:Pesticides and general practitioners.This will be presented by Dr Claudio, the deputy director of theInternational Centre for Pesticides and Health Risk Prevention in Milan.Claudio has stated in the workshop abstract:"Agriculture is a relevant source of income in both developed anddeveloping countries, and most of the population is engaged, at differentlevels, in agricultural jobs. Despite the relevance of agriculture, theproblems related to occupational health and safety following the use ofpesticides, are largely neglected, and data on the health conditions ofagricultural workers are scarce or lacking; General practitioners in ruralareas are often unaware of pesticide health risks due to the lack ofadequate tools"."While developing countries are facing problems related to their use andmisuse, even developed countries have difficulties in the monitoring andsurveillance of health effects from pesticides" HIV in the developing world; balancing treatment and preventionChair: Professor Ian Couper, Republic of South AfricaSpeakers: Dr Dorothy Logie Scotland), Dr. Aniekan Etokidem (Nigeria)Dr.Ndifreke E. Udonwa (Nigeria ) and Gilles (Scotland)."HIV/AIDS easily becomes another "doom and gloom" scenario for developingcountries, already seen in either a negative or patronising light by theso-called first world. Yet the realities of the AIDS pandemic anywherepresent challenges to all health workers everywhere, and indeed to all ofhumanity, no matter their context. Some reflection on attitudes towardsAIDS is an important starting place. HIV is the largest public healthproblem in the world today. Over forty million people are infected globally(30 million in sub-Saharan Africa). Less than 1% of the infected Africanpopulation can currently access antiretroviral drugs. Most of these peoplewill die in the next five years". "Few health policy questions carry higher stakes. The lives of millions ofpeople depend on getting this right. This workshop will introduce a varietyof experiences and perspectives on HIV/AIDS, including views from Africa, apublic health assessment, and an ethical analysis". Professor Toralf Hasvold from Tromso in Northern Norway will describe thechallenges faced in the rural communities of the old Soviet Empire. In hisworkshop "The Soviet inheritance: future challenges in Rural Health" "Threeparticipants from Russia, Georgia and Armenia or a Baltic state will begiving a status report for their countries about the rural health situationin an equity context. Based on these reports the plenum will be asked todiscuss how WONCA may contribute and play a role in improving thesituation. The workshop will focus on a comparative description of ruralhealth challenges in the three represented countries, and on how WONCA andthe Rural Health working group can play a role in making a change for thebetter. The recommendations from the workshop will be submitted to WONCA."We will bring you more details of other workshops in later bulletins. We have had few entries to our art/photography competition to date. May wetake the opportunity to remind you that a prize is being offered! Pleasesend your photographs, paintings or drawings to Margaret at the semFYCCongresos (semFYC Congresos, Carrer del Pi, 11, Pl. 2a, Of.13 08002Barcelona, Spain). We want your entries to illustrate the theme "My Work,My Life" and we want you to be imaginative with the brief. We want you tosubmit your work as a hard copy rather than electronically. SemFYC haskindly donated a prize to the winning entry. If you wish to bring your workwith you to Santiago then please inform Margaret of your intention tosubmit work (Margaret @semFYC.es). Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need any help. We wouldappreciate if you could pass this on to your friends and local networksPast bulletins can be found on the conference website(www.ruralwonca2003.net <http://www.ruralwonca2003.net>) or on the (UK)Institute of Rural Health website (www.rural-health.ac.uk<http://www.rural-health.ac.uk>) Wynn- Chair Scientific Committee wj@... Bueno Ortíz Vice Chair Scientific Committee jbuenoo@... Mendive Chair Organising Committee jmendivea@... Gilles Chair Cultural Committee j.gillies@... Buriel Chair CPD and "Taller" Sessions lgarciab@... Macleod WONCA Liasion johnajmacleod@... August 2003www.ruralwonca2003.net <http://www.ruralwonca2003.net> -- Dr Wynn-Director Institute of Rural HealthPresident of EURIPAChair Scientific Committee Rural WONCA 2003, Santiago de Compostela. email: johnwj@...