Time to focus on citizens’ health

Countries at all levels of economic development are concerned about the impact of the financial crisis on health.

If unemployment continues to rise, safety nets for social protection fail, savings and pension funds erode, and public spending drops, it is inevitable that people’s health will suffer.

The impact is direct when stress causes a rise in mental illness and in the use of tobacco, alcohol, and other harmful substances.

It is made worse when health services cannot sustain the level of care that people need when they fall ill.

This prediction is not based on theory but on what has happened in past recessions, most of which have been less deep and of shorter duration than what most experts predict we are now facing.

Financial markets, economies and businesses are more closely interconnected than ever before.

As we have seen, financial turmoil is contagious, moving rapidly from one country to another and spreading quickly from one sector to others.

Making matters worse, particularly in developing nations, the financial crisis comes hard on the heels of food and fuel crises, which are estimated to have tipped more than 100 million people back into poverty.

The crisis thus comes at a precarious time for public health. We are in the midst of the most ambitious drive in history to tackle the root causes of poverty and reduce the gaps in health outcomes.

No one wants this momentum to stall.

In past recessions, development aid was cut just when it was needed most. This must not happen again.

We cannot afford to sacrifice hard-won gains in child and women’s health, in the fight against AIDS, TB, and malaria, and in building strong, health delivery systems.

The financial crisis cannot be allowed to undermine our pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals.

In times of economic crisis, people in all countries tend to forego private care and turn to publicly-financed services.

This comes at a time when public health systems in many countries -in both the developed and developing world- are already overstretched and underfunded.