[Ip-health] AP: US accused of interference ahead of vote for next WHO chief

Tue Nov 7 10:07:01 2006

US accused of interference ahead of vote for next WHO chief

Geneva, Nov. 7(AP): The World Health Organization is convening this week to
pick its next leader, and some leading public health officials are worried
the new chief may not have the strength to stand up to Washington on drug
and sexual health policy.

Critics say WHO has been largely controlled behind the scenes by the United
States _ its biggest donor, and one which many contend is intent on
promoting the interests of its pharmaceuticals industry and the Bush
administration's ideological line on issues like abortion.

Leading public health experts and senior WHO officials told The Associated
Press that Washington consistently interfered with policy under the U.N.
agency's last director-general, Dr. Lee Jong-Wook, who died in May.

``The U.S. government has a direct role in every significant decision made
in Geneva, and even close to a veto role,'' said Dr. Richard Horton, editor
of the influential medical journal, The Lancet. Horton also sits on an
independent advisory panel for WHO.

In one prominent case, the United States recently requested the suppression
of a book commissioned by WHO that criticized U.S. free trade agreements
for jeopardizing poor countries' access to cheap medicines.

In a letter to WHO's acting Director-General, a senior official from the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the report ``spuriously''
characterized of U.S. trade policy. WHO has yet to make a decision on the
U.S. demand.

``Standing up to the U.S. is not the easiest thing to do at the WHO,'' said
Sisule Musungu, a Kenyan intellectual property specialist, who co-authored
the report with a former WHO staffer.

The episode has sparked concern from two U.S. Democrats, Senator Edward
Kennedy and Representative Henry Waxman, who have called for an
investigation into how American trade agreements threaten the health of
people in developing countries.

``Attempting to suppress a report because it is critical of U.S. trade
policy is unacceptable,'' Kennedy wrote in a letter to Mike Leavitt,
Secretary of Health and Human Services. ``We need more _ not less _
analysis of the factors affecting global public health.''

The five shortlisted contenders were former Hong Kong director of health
and WHO insider Dr. Margaret Chan from China; Dr. Shigeru Omi, a Japanese
who heads WHO's operations in the Western Pacific; Mexican Health Minister
Dr. Julio Frenk; longtime WHO Kuwaiti official, Dr. Kazem Behbehani; and
Spanish Health Minister Elena Salgado Mendez.

Chan and Omi were the frontrunners after the first round of balloting
Monday. After two days of mostly closed-door deliberations, WHO's executive
board, comprised of 34 representatives from 193 member states, will
announce the new leader on Wednesday.

For many, the clearest sign of U.S. meddling under Lee's tenure came in
January, when WHO's top official in Thailand was stripped of his post after
he said in an editorial that a U.S.-Thai free trade agreement would
jeopardize Thai access to cheap drugs, leading to the deaths of hundreds of
thousands of AIDS patients.

The official, Dr. William Aldis was swiftly dispatched to the WHO's
regional office in New Delhi, India, and was given no explanation for his
demotion. Aldis was authorized by WHO rules to write the editorial, which
largely followed the lines of WHO policy on generic AIDS drugs.

Several Asian newspapers complained about American interference, and the
transfer was the subject of articles in Britain's Financial Times accusing
the U.S. of bullying the international organization and endangering the
lives of AIDS patients.

``This was an example of an instance where there was probably pressure from
a certain member state, in this case the U.S., and unfortunately, WHO was
not able to take a clear stance in defending health issues,'' said Dr. Tido
von Schoen-Angerer, of Medecins Sans Frontieres, which works closely with
WHO.

Several senior WHO officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of
the sensitivity of the issue, told The Associated Press that American
opposition to Aldis was indeed behind his removal.

The United States denies it had anything to do with Aldis' transfer.

``We had no role in that,'' said Bill Hall, a spokesman for the U.S. Health
and Human Services Department. Though Hall says Washington formally
complained to the WHO about the editorial, he said no suggestions were made
about disciplining Aldis.

The Bush administration has challenged ideologically charged WHO programs
such as needle exchanges and condom distribution. Republican policies have
had a ``chilling'' effect on condom distribution in Africa, a WHO official
who works on HIV/AIDS said on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the topic.

Bush has made more money available for AIDS research than any previous
American president, but that largesse has not been extended to programs in
reproductive and sexual health.

``As soon as the word 'abortion' appears, there is likely to be severe
scrutiny from the Director-General's office,'' said a WHO official who
works on reproductive health issues and spoke on condition of anonymity
because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

In the case of Thailand, experts say, WHO's AIDS policy has wideranging
implications.

Thailand has often been praised as a success story in its approach to
tackling AIDS _ producing cheap, generic versions of anti-retrovirals. More
than 80,000 people depend on these life-prolonging treatments and AIDS
deaths have dropped by nearly 80 percent in the last decade.

Advocacy groups say a free trade agreement with the United States could
jeopardize all that: in exchange for increased trade with Washington,
Thailand would be obliged to tighten its intellectual property laws, making
it harder to produce generic drugs without the consent of the company
holding the patent. Normally, there is great flexibility under World Trade
Organization rules for manufacturing generic drugs for domestic use.

Since the publication of Aldis' editorial, the Thailand-U.S. free trade
agreement has been stalled _ largely because of the attention drawn to what
the pact would do to Thailand's strategy on fighting AIDS.

For some who have worked at the top echelons of WHO, the imprint of the
U.S. has been unmistakable.

``A huge number of decisions at WHO were affected by the U.S. And the ones
that weren't were in areas in which the U.S. didn't have a particular
interest, like whether the leprosy department should be in Geneva or
Delhi,'' said Dr. Jim Yong Kim, former WHO AIDS director.

In reproductive health, Washington allegedly has delayed the approval of
lists of essential medicines for countries because they included drugs that
could induce abortions.

In malaria control, WHO's recent endorsement of the use of the
controversial pesticide DDT was seen by some in the malaria world as a
capitulation to the American industries that produce it since other equally
effective alternatives exist.

+++++++++++++++++++++
Sheila Shettle
Senior Communications Officer
M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res
Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
Rue de Lausanne 78
1211 Geneva
Switzerland
+ 41.22.849.8403
+ 41.79.293.0270 (m.)
sheila.shettle@geneva.msf.org
www.accessmed-msf.org