Health as a Human Right - the WHO Response

In conjunction with its 11th annual meeting, the EuroPharm Forum held a symposium entitled "Health as a Human Right - the WHO Response", in Copenhagen on Saturday, 5 October 2002. The overall aim of the symposium was to present the key priority areas of WHO and to open a debate on how pharmacists can link or incorporate these areas in their activities. Seventy pharmacists from 26 countries attended. Material from the symposium, as well as abstracts of the speeches, will soon be available on the Forum's Web site: http://www.euro.who.int/eprise/main/WHO/Progs/EPF/Home.

The meeting reaffirmed access and appropriate use of medicines as part of the human right to health. ¦

Annual course on drug policy issues for transitional countries

From 27 October to 9 November 2002, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, more than 40 experts, mainly from the NIS and CCEE, participated in the annual course on Drug Policy Issues for Transitional Countries. The course was organized by the Boston University School of Public Health with the support of WHO/EDM, EURO and the Tashkent-based, USAID-supported, Zdrav Plus Project. The course addressed different policy areas and built on the extensive experiences of the participating countries now that more than 10 years of drastic changes have occurred in eastern Europe.

Bulgaria's new drug policy focuses on access to medicines

More than 100 experts from all parts of the pharmaceutical sector participated in the National Drug Policy meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 26 September 2002, and provided input to the Ministry of Health's policy proposal. The new policy will now be further developed and provide the framework for a comprehensive approach to maintaining access to medicines for the population.