Devex: Opinion: 5 agenda items to watch at WHO’s annual board meeting
Johanna Ralston, CEO of the World Obesity Federation and executive in residence at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy; and Naveen Thacker, president of the Asia Pacific Pediatric Association and chair of the Strategic Advisory Group on Immunization of the International Pediatric Association

“…With WHO’s new leader, Dr. Tedros, committed to steering the organization in a new direction, the [WHO Executive Board] meeting provides a bellwether for how dynamic the organization will be in tackling the global health challenges in the next five years. Here are five things to watch out for on the agenda. 1. Access to medicine. If there is one issue that ignites the media, it’s how much prices for new — and old — medicines are soaring. … 2. Noncommunicable diseases. The biggest drivers of death and disability across the globe include everything from cervical cancer, to mental health, to obesity, which is now being viewed as a gateway disease to a plethora of cancers, as well as diabetes and heart disease. … 3. Polio transition. One of the great public health stories of our time seems to be in its final chapter. … 4. Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis has long been in the shadow of HIV, having received exponentially less funds … 5. Snakebites. Snakebites tend to affect poor rural communities, which is one of the reasons they get so little attention…” (1/22).